Dimensions - W1cm x H5.5cm
Materials - Stoneware
Method - Raku-fired
Care - Wipe gently with a cloth
Description
This low, open tea bowl holds a soft greenish-grey tone, with a deep green crackle glaze pooling at its centre. Fine cracks travel across the surface, lifted by subtle flashes of soft salmon pink that add warmth and quiet complexity.
The piece features a fracture that occurred during firing reflecting the unpredictable nature of the process, carefully restored by the artist using a muted grey composite, a considered feature that embraces the bowl’s history.
For Ritual Objects, Abigail Schama explores making as a form of ritual, both intentional and unpredictable. This series of raku-fired works balances planning with surrender. While each piece begins with control, the final outcome is shaped by fire, air, timing, and even the weather. It’s a process that relies on multiple hands and demands responsiveness in the moment.
Cracks, flashes, and shifting tones emerge through the firing, making each piece entirely unique. Schama embraces this unpredictability, allowing the process to guide the work. The collection moves between soft greys and sandy tones, alongside deep greens and blues, with rare flashes of pink, an elusive and striking result of the raku process.
Each piece stands as a record of transformation, where intention and chance meet.
About the Artist
London-based ceramic artist Abigail Schama came to pottery from painting, having studied Fine Art at Camberwell College of Arts and Bristol and completing an MA in Art Theory at Chelsea College of Arts. She trained under Loewe Craft Prize finalist Akiko Hirai, who introduced her to the beauty of functionality, and now lives and works in London, where she founded The Mews Coachworks, a female makers community in North West London.
Influenced by artists such as Rembrandt and Twombly, as well as Ancient Greek and Japanese vessels, Schama reinterprets historical forms as motifs - often rendering them unfamiliar and anthropomorphic - drawing inspiration from Greek mythology while exploring the creative tension between functionality and dysfunctionality. Her works are wheel-thrown in combinations of dark and light stoneware with experimental dolomite and transparent glazes, sometimes further fired and lightly gilded with gold lustre, with each piece retaining the marks and rhythms of its making.
Read more about Abigail's practice and view her full collection..
