Beth Blackburn I Make Shapes

From a very young age I started playing with clay, and went on to study three-dimensional design, mixed mediums, wood, metalwork and ceramics. I'm unable to keep myself away from the tactility of clay - it's been my journey and the clay has become part of me and the way I experience life. 

I teach ceramics which I find amazingly rewarding, not only for sharing the skill-set I have built over the last twenty-something years, but for others to experience its calming and therapeutic qualities.

For the last ten years I have lived on the coast, walking daily along the seafront or in the woods, witnessing the expanse of the ever-changing seasons, as the skies, sunsets and weather help ground how small we are as individuals, even though our emotions can feel so large and overwhelming at times.

I work to process my emotions, filter thoughts, replay events in my mind, creating a tangible, tactile, solid form through the process of manipulation and pushing boundaries - not only of the material but in my mind whilst making and representing the complexities of my emotions. The limitations of the material help confirm the fragility of feelings.

I hope to evoke new interpretations from the observer. No two people can feel the same, n...