Jo Minnitt

I am a ceramic artist based in Brighton, UK, making teacups and saucers on the wheel. I'm inspired by my grandparents' Victorian china tea sets and my family's daily tea drinking habits - it's said that 'a cup of tea solves everything'. I contrast these elegant forms with experimental glazes; highlighting the making process through variations in colour, texture, fingerprints, sometimes firing in atmospheric kilns such as wood and soda.

Q&A

Artist Statement

I throw on the wheel in black and white stoneware clays, changing the clay bodies to get my desired glaze tones and textures in the final piece. Rather than perfect sets, I prefer my work to sit together as a family – I want someone to have ‘their’ own mug, uniquely different in some way. It’s important to me that my mugs are perfectly designed for their use, so I carefully sculpt handles with traditional thumb rests and lugs for a secure hold to a range of sizes for different hands. Much of my design inspiration comes from Brighton as a city. Mostly built in the Georgian and Victorian times, houses here have quality craftsmanship with unique, decorative details. These illustrative details are often both useful and beautiful – and well-made, still appreciated hundreds of years later. Brighton’s seafront is also an inspiration to me – it’s amazing how many colours the sea and sky can display at different times of year. My teacups combine this Victorian influence in form and design alongside my experimentation with glazes. In future, I would like to use local rocks and clays in my work, making the work more sustainable as well as bringing in the distinctive geology of the area’s Chalk cliffs and downland.My ceramic work provides a creative outlet alongside my full time web design, balancing my time with screens and keeping me inspired by the natural world. I’ve recently completed glaze calculus classes, tried wood and soda firing and done a course with Matthew Blakely on making glazes from local materials. I have been selected for the London Potter’s Guild Showcase exhibition next month at the Barbican in London.

What craft do you work with?

It began as an after-work hobby, getting me away from my web design work on screens, back in 2010. I started working with terracotta and slipware making cooking pots, and moved into working with stoneware on the wheel, settling on the mug as the shape to experiment with. Since 2018 I’ve had my own studio in Brighton, UK, working part-time on my ceramics and experimenting with form, clays and glazes.

What inspires you to work with this craft?

Ceramics is a never ending source of inspiration in itself – there’s so much to learn, whatever facet you’re interested in. I have limited myself to the teacup and mug form so that I can focus on what interests me each month – whether that be making it more ergonomically secure by playing with handle shape, tweaking an angle slightly for more elegance in the form, or from digging up local materials and designing and testing my own glazes.

How do you start your creative process?

I continually note down ideas and projects, often inspired by museums and art galleries for technique – as well as looking to other mediums such as cake decorating or woodwork. When I get into my studio, I’ll spend time thinking about my next project and how to design the process – for example, if it’s a new glaze idea, I’ll need to consider the clay body and the shape to emphasise the glaze result, or work out how many test tiles to make. I find the making process calming and meditative, getting consumed by the process and my goal. My favourite part is also the most difficult, mentally – opening the kiln! Sometimes, maybe 5% of the time, you’ll have an exquisite piece, something that exceeds your expectations, chemistry magic. The rest of the time, you’ll have some good things, and often a number of failures!

How would you best describe your workspace and what tools could you not do without?

I have a small, light-filled studio in Brighton at an artist’s studios near my home, where six other potters also have spaces. We share two electric kilns, run off renewable energy. I use a 50-year old Alsager wheel, handed down from another potter in the family.I’ve travelled a bit with my ceramics, as my partner works abroad. So I’m always considering the tools which are essential, and aim to work with as few as possible for efficiency. I prefer to work with a potter’s wheel if I can, but otherwise I’m mostly sculpting with my hands and a single wooden sculpting tool. A mudtools do-all trimming tool is also an essential!

Are there new techniques you would like to try?

I’m always dreaming of the time to try new things. Recently I’ve been on a course learning about identifying rocks for glazes, so I’ve got some new materials for glaze testing. I’d love to get my own soda kiln to experiment with this more, as I had a few months taster when out in the USA last year (2022).

What have you learnt or the best advice you have received that you would like to share with fellow crafters?

The best advice I’d have for beginners, is to try it all! Do all the things, and don’t worry about changing your mind or your interests, ceramics is a big world and you need to find what you’re excited by! Then, when you’re a few years in, and looking for a signature style, I’d say – don’t worry too much about the style. It’ll come slowly, as you ‘dig in’ to the areas you love most. Start limiting yourself, as you can gain so much creativity from defined boundaries, and go from there.