Ceramicist Alice Watkins has been experimenting with bones, seashells and food waste from restaurants to create special clays for her Wild and Wasted project – supplying city eateries with tableware forged from the very ingredients they prepare in the kitchen…
You worked for many years as a scenic painter in the theatre. Why and how did you make the transition from this career into pottery?
I turned to pottery when I was experiencing a time of great difficulty while recovering from Covid in 2020. I was extremely unwell at the very beginning of the pandemic and subsequently recovering from long Covid. Pottery became a lifeline for me at this time. It gave me a creative outlet, and also had this extremely powerful ability to ease my Covid symptoms. I had around 12 different, very difficult and overwhelming symptoms at this stage, but somehow the mindful activity of ceramics was the only thing at this point that made me feel any better and gave me momentary relief of my Covid symptoms.
In many ways it really was a total lifeline. It gave me connection to my creativity, it gave me the ability to express myself in new ways, it kept my mind active when physically I was struggling. It has been the thread that was with me from when I first got unwell, and has picked me up and travelled with me, unfurling a new alterative career for me during a very difficult time. Now a full-time ceramicist, it is a very beautiful thing to realise and witness that there are so many transferrable skills from my theatre career to my ceramics career.
Where did the idea come from to introduce the element of creating items from kitchen waste?
It came from when I started deep diving in to the glaze chemistry of my ceramic production. I bulk ordered lots of minerals and materials that make up the glaze recipe and was confronted with multiple big bags of white powder that until that point, I hadn’t really joined the dots on where they came from. I had been feeling uncomfortable for a while about the environmental impact of my practice, and it was as this point that I knew I had to change my way of working. I knew that I could swap out some ingredients in ceramic production with waste materials which have the same chemical compounds, therefore reducing the amount of virgin mined materials used. I’ve also for the last year and a half been using local wild clay, meaning clay that is sourced by me. This comes either from restaurants’ market gardens who work farm to table, or from excavation in construction therefore diverting these materials from landfill.
Can you explain the sources of the more sustainable materials you’re using, and why you chose them?
I mainly supply restaurants with tableware at the moment, so it felt very natural for me to start taking waste products from the restaurants I supply to. I’m aiming towards the most closed loop system I can. I will take waste from the kitchens, including seashells, eggshells, animal bones and charcoal from their grills. I also take the broken crockery from them that is too chipped for use in the restaurant any longer and grind it up to incorporate back in to the clay body and glaze that I use in my ceramic production. The wild clay I use comes from either construction ‘waste’ – meaning clay that has been excavated during construction that would be otherwise heading for landfill. I’ll also source clay from market gardens belonging to restaurants. It means the carbon miles and footprint for that clay is so much lower than bought, commercially produced clay and materials. I am responsible for the sourcing/collection/processing and make with the wild clay that I have sourced.
You describe Wild and Wasted as the ‘yin to your yang’ for your other pottery project – how do they influence/differ from each other?
My Alipwm Pottery ceramics are very much drawn from the yang aspect of my personality. The outward facing, full of energy, external, independent. Wild and Wasted feels like the opposite side to the coin, the yin. It has a softer, gentler more feminine energy. Its aesthetic is very different to the Alipwm Pottery. I wanted the materials in the sustainable Wild and Wasted collection be at the forefront of the piece’s aesthetic.
I wanted to keep the materials to a minimum so that each particular ingredient is what gives the item its unique characteristic. A low-intervention method, if you will.
Through my recovery from Covid, I have been trying to find balance between both these sides of my personality, looking quite hard at whether particular attributes are serving me. In recovery, I’ve had to assess so many things in my life that I haven’t really confronted before. It feels really good to be in a place where I’m connecting all aspects of my personality through my work. Knowing there’s a space for both, and leaning in to the fact that as humans we all have a multifaceted nature that really allows for a rich tapestry. My Alipwm Pottery pieces are drawn a lot from counter culture. Music is a great source of inspiration for me in my work. There’s also a sense of subversiveness there, and an irreverence. A lot of my work has a cathartic element to it, for example some scrawling of text across the piece – being thoughts and feelings that I was having at the time. I love treating my ceramic items as a kind of blank canvas. I studied Fine Art at college, and have been a painter for more than 20 years, so it felt very natural for me to extend the canvas to the ceramic piece, drawing images and occasionally text on to it. I love the freedom I feel with my ceramic pieces. I feel free to take visual and creative risks, which I think I can definitely attribute to been my 15-plus years working in theatre.
What would you say to someone reading who may be facing a similar struggle to you and is considering experimenting with pottery?
Absolutely GO FOR IT! Pottery is such a therapeutic activity. The connection you get to the earth, through handling the clay, literally handling the earth beneath your feet – it gives you such a sense of connection, not only to the earth, but also to yourself and your body. I feel like it’s such an accessible art form. I feel sad that so many people tell themselves the narrative that they’re no good at art, they’re not considered ‘artistic’, whereas art is about connection and play and freedom. Participating in art should be for every single person, without judgement. I think as we grow older, we feel a bit more frightened about taking risks and close down avenues that would have been open to us as children. Pottery can be such an expansive, fun thing to do that feeds your head and your soul. The biggest battle is managing to lose the judgement of yourself throughout. We all have an element of perfectionism in us, it’s just telling that voice to pipe down.
Can you tell us about your pottery lessons, what people can expect and what feedback has been like?
I find teaching pottery particularly rewarding. I love sharing skills and knowledge. It’s almost like it re-ignites your passion; like there’s a transference of energy between teacher and student. I have some students who come to me and haven’t touched clay before, to some who are hoping to improve on certain areas or have specific projects in mind. It’s wonderful seeing them develop, and the pure sense of accomplishment ceramics can give you, that you are able to create beautiful items which you can take home and use every day – there’s huge gratification in that. I know wholeheartedly that it can also be a tool in helping people who might be struggling with their mental health.
This was my own path to pottery, so I love being able to now facilitate others in a therapeutic way and to support people. This feels very important to me and something that I’m expanding this year. I want to create a nurturing space for people to access this extraordinary medium in a safe and supportive environment.
For more information visit alipwmpottery.com
