SPRING FLING 2012 PARTICIPANT
After she graduated with a BA in 3D Design from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2000, Hannah moved to Dumfries and Galloway to undertake an apprenticeship for an established potter. She set up her own workshop at Gracefield Arts Centre in 2003 before relocating to rural Galloway and her work has been exhibited widely across the UK as well as internationally in the USA & Japan. Hannah has won Silver Selected Awards from Craft & Design Magazine in 2009, 2010 and 2012 and has participated in Spring Fling every year for the past 10 years.
SF: What do you make?
Pots, slipware pots. Slipware is my passion and my love. I make pots using some very old traditional techniques but I use them to make pots which hopefully are for today and of me rather than being reproduction pieces.
SF: Where do you make?
In a converted barn at Lochdougan Farm, just west of Castle Douglas, a white washed workshop with small trees growing in pots outside the door, clay, slips, glazes and pots at every stage inside and a wood burning stove with a couple of comfy chairs just waiting for visitors to come and have tea.
SF: Why do you make where you do& How long have you worked here?
I am in this region because I never left after moving here to work as an apprentice ten years ago, in this space because it is perfect, I’ve been in this space just over a year but at Lochdougan for almost eight years.
SF: What inspires you?
Pots! (Do you sense a theme here?) Medieval pots, the pots of my peers, country pots from a time gone by, along with textiles and woodwork and metalwork of folk art traditions around the world.
SF: Where do you go for a break from the hard work as an artist? (Could be a 10min cuppa or a 3-month holiday)
Weather permitting I’ll head out for a jaunt on my bike, a great way to clear the fog in my head. Cycling the long way round to work in a morning gives me time to plan the day and get focussed.
SF: What is on the horizon for you locally?
I’m about to deliver pots to Midpark Hospital in Dumfries, the prizes for this year’s Solway Yacht Club races are almost ready and I’m building up a stash of pots to be sacrificed to my next wood firing.
SF: What is on the horizon for you nationally / internationally?
Nationally Art in Clay at Hatfield House and Potfest in the Park in July, Artspace 2012 at Barn Galleries in Henley on Thames in May and of course Spring Fling in June. Internationally an exhibition in Tokyo is just coming to a close and I am talking to a group of potters in America about their open studio trail as they have invited me to take part as a guest in 2013.
SF: What advice would you give to an up-and-coming artist?
Be sure, be determined, follow your passion and be true to yourself.
SF: What’s currently playing on your studio ipod / cd player / tape deck / record player?
It’s been a frustrating day so The Clash are suiting my mood just now.
SF: Tell us something not many people know about you
I find some pots so lovely and luscious that I just have to lick them
images (c) Hannah McAndrew
