Potter hopes to set up a Sligo studio

EMERGING ceramic designer Bridget Timoney from Keash is one of four finalists in the Emerging Ceramic Design competition.

The competition is being run by the Kilkenny group with winners receiving a € 1000 bursary fund and voting for the competition ended on September 9th with no winner yet announced.

Having always had an interest in Art, attending Art College in LSAD in Limerick Bridget soon realised quite quickly that ceramics was what she wanted to do. Bridget is also a graduate of the Design & Craft Council of Irelands renowned Design Store in Dublin and has recently completed the internationally recognised Ceramic Skills & Design course in Thomastown Co. Kilkenny.

Last Tuesday the 4th of October she featured on RTE 1, The Today Show with Daithí O’Sheá where she potted live, demonstrating how she makes her work and talking about the Emerging Ceramic Design competition. Some of her pieces are currently on display in the Kilkenny Shop in Nassau St.

Bridget makes functional porcelain tableware and sculptural stoneware vessels explaining that to make a batch of work from start to finish it takes about two weeks, three days to throw, turn, handle and decorate the piece, then bisque fired when dry and then the work is glazed and high- fired the second week.

She draws inspiration from trees, in particular their colours and texture, Bridget said: “Texture is an important element for me with ceramics; this is part of how the ‘ peeling paint’ effect used on the jugs, vases and large lidded jars came about.”

Each piece is decorated with printing and splashing techniques, using a range of blue and green slips to create unique surface qualities, both visual and tactile.

Talking about the future Bridget plans to work on your own on a small scale while also working for another potter part- time.

While she is currently not selling any of her work in Sligo she hope to sell it in one or two places in the county in the near future: “I want to develop my business skills, build up contacts and learn to run a pottery studio as a successful business. Further in the future, I hope to set up my own pottery studio and work there full time.”