SPARKLING IDEAS

countryside – I really value open space,” she says. “It’s calm, you can go at your own pace – nothing is forcing you to go any faster.”

Isatu was born in Ludlow and grew up there until she was seven, when her family moved to the Worcestershire countryside. She returned to the market town to work with Andrew. Her new studio is close to where she visited her great-aunt Mary, who lived in Corvedale, and she has fond memories of bike rides in the area.

Isatu went to Liverpool for a year at the end of her apprenticeship to work in homeware design but the call of Shropshire was too strong and she was lured back.

“I just kept thinking about being a potter. I just wanted to make,” she says. Her works reflect who she is – humble, honest, full of ideas and different influences, practical yet poised – an achievement of which Andrew would be proud, as a potter is taught to bring their own energy to a form. Much like Andrew’s work, Isatu’s pieces have a huge sense of beauty but also a huge sense of humility to them.

“It’s about what you bring to it,” says Isatu. “A well-made pot truly expresses the potter.”

Some of Isatu’s latest pieces shimmer with what looks like glitter but are in fact specks of mica (shiny silicate mineral) in the clay, a move away from Andrew’s style as she experiments with a material that requires strength and persistence. “No one really throws with micaceous clay, which has a high mica content, as it is difficult to work on the wheel, but I love it,” she says. “It’s such a joy to work with. It’s so sparkly. You have to work with it very quickly, so you need to know what you’re making.” The clay is made in Stoke-on-Trent to a special recipe developed in collaboration with the Native American master potter Felipe Ortega.

As well as her raw earthenware pieces, Isatu also produces glazed stoneware for tableware and vases. She is strongly influenced by ancient pottery, notably Minoan but also Mimbres, made in Mexico from around 1000–1150AD. “They made beautiful coil-built bowls with black-and-white slip decorations,” she says. “Ceramics from indigenous or old communities are very beautiful and simple objects.”

Isatu’s father is from Sierra Leone – moving to the nearby Welsh Marches with her mother when civil war broke out in the country – and she can’t help but look to West African culture for ideas. “I’m really interested in the way ceramics are used in a traditional West African context,” she says. But it is her maternal grandmother who is her biggest influence.

“I loved spending time with her growing up. She was divorced when she was 40 and went to live in Scotland. She built her own house when she was 65. She was really into home crafts and did everything with her hands – she spun wool, knitted, sailed boats, made wine.”

No wonder Isatu strives to create pieces that are functional and everyday, modest and accessible. This strong, skilled craftswoman will keep the fire for this ancient art burning.

Throwing a pot on the wheel requires skill, steadiness and calm focus to create a balanced piece

Isatu uses a rib to smooth the clay’s surface

The sculpted base of the earthenware cloche, ready to be kiln-fired

One of Isatu’s glazed stoneware mugs

Isatu’s work is influenced by a combinaton of her Shropshire training, ancient pottery and

West African ceramics, resulting in a range of elegantly simple and beautifully crafted pieces

Rosanna Morris