‘I taught myself by watching YouTube’
Tom Kemp, 52, left his NHS job in 2017 to pursue pottery. He is based in Devon and his work sells for up to £5,000
It started eight years ago with a few weekend classes. I’d never touched clay before and like anybody else who starts, I was rubbish. The first thing you make will crack or crumble or never get off the wheel. You sit there, trying to be calm and focused and centred to bring something into life. That little spark, a hint that maybe you can do it, is what brings you back.
I’m very bad at being taught things so I watched thousands of YouTube videos. I also got a wheel so I could get good at throwing. I couldn’t fire anything – I just had the wheel and a very messy front room! I’d already taught myself calligraphy – I’d studied brush writing for many years – so I knew that learning a craft is very physical. It’s your body, not your brain, that has to learn and it’s a very slow process of endless repetition.
Working with clay is very escapist – being at the wheel takes all your attention. After three or four years, I was getting better and started an Instagram account. I’d get two or three likes for each picture but then I began posting videos and people loved seeing how things were made. I built a mad following – 162,000 followers – and auctioned five vases as an experiment. I had no idea how much I was worth. Fewer people bid than I’d hoped – Instagram is full of young people who might not have money or houses to put things in. But those that did bid more than I expected. One sold for £800.
I saved a year of living costs before giving up my job to make this my career. It was nerveracking and still is. I moved from London to Devon to a studio living space and I sell through my website and two London galleries, Thrown and Henry Saywell gallery. I’ve been a secret artist for a very long time. Now I’m open about it and it turns out I’m quite successful. I probably should have done it sooner.
‘That little spark, a hint maybe you can do it, is what brings you back’