EMMA
We met Emma Burrill in her beautiful home before heading over to The Ceramic Studio.
"I love making and creating things; it almost doesn’t matter what it is. It’s like I don’t want to limit myself."
What were your early interests and the path you took to your first job?
Emma. I spent my early childhood in Singapore and Hong Kong, where my Father was working in the metals trade. Our family travelled extensivelyin the Far East until we returned to England when I reached secondary school age. I was lucky to have such a culturally and visually rich childhood which encouraged my naturally creative and inquisitive nature.
When I was around seven, I began making wooden objects from the small offcuts left over from my Father’s DIY projects. He gave me small tools to use, and I would hammer nails into pieces of wood and make small constructions. This is the kind of thing I still love doing!
My school life in the UK was very different from the one I had experienced in the Far East. I had to adapt to fit in quickly. Art wasn’t seen as a serious career choice, so I was discouraged from following this path. When I was thirteen, I borrowed my Mother’s Olympus Pen film camera and explored the Kent countryside taking photographs. Photography seemed to be a profession where you would be taken seriously as an artist but could still be creative, and I was hooked. I went on to do an Art Foundation course at Maidstone School of Art, where I could mix with like-minded creatives and finally felt like I belonged. Tracey Emin was in her second year of printmaking at the time and was very visible even then around the college. She would paste her work all over the canteen and do strange interactive performances, which I found both bemusing and inspiring. Emin inspired many of us tentatively taking our first steps as artists.
The foundation course gave me the freedom to experiment across disciplines, and I became interested in manipulating my photography work using paint and collage. My experimental approach didn’t go down too well when I went on to do my Degree at West Surrey College of Art in Farnham, a traditionally documentary-based photography course, but this only encouraged me to experiment even more. It was the early nineties, and I was working with analogue techniques using a mechanical camera, rolls of film and traditional darkroom printing techniques. Because of this, there was a physical hands-on aspect to the process, which I wanted to push beyond expected boundaries. Despite the battles on my Degree course, my experimental pieces secured me a place at the Royal College of Art to study fine art photography. The reception there was much more supportive and encouraged me to push my work even further.
While at the Royal College, I won several student prizes that allowed me and my partner Anthony to travel. We backpacked on a budget to India taking photographs, collecting printed ephemera and inspiring objects. Our time in India was an amazing experience. Travelling in the early nineties was challenging but an incredible time that has stayed with us both and informed our work. The culture was unfamiliar but inspiring, the people were warm and friendly, and the food was incredible! When I returned to college, I created collages incorporating photography and the ephemera we had collected on our trip. The experience informed the work I produced for the rest of my course, including my final show of large-scale black and white photographic prints hand painted with oil paint. I was using traditional techniques but applying them in a contemporary way.
Did you start working after graduation and continue developing the work you’d been creating?
Emma. After graduating from the Royal College, we stayed in London, where I worked commercially whilst continuing to develop my own personal work and holding regular exhibitions. This mix worked well at the start of my career as clients understood how I worked and were happy to wait for me to complete a commercial project. I was commissioned for book jackets and editorial work, then moved into advertising for clients such as BT, NatWest and Toyota. Advertising in the ’90s was surprisingly innovative, and clients were often happy to try out creative solutions to projects.
When we had children, life became more complicated. Juggling full-time parenting and a highly competitive career became tricky, and that’s when I took a break, concentrated on enjoying the children, and developed my interest in gardening. It was something I could dip into to keep my creativity going and get my hands dirty. I began an RHS Horticultural course and became obsessed with plants.
Anthony and I were both missing the countryside after 15 years in London and finally made a move to Kent with our two small children in 2003. I volunteered at Great Dixter and completed a garden design diploma whilst I was there to build up a good knowledge of plants and design techniques.
Ten years ago, I was lucky enough to move to a beautiful spot in Wittersham, just outside Rye, with seven acres of untouched farmland. After years of intensive agriculture, the land was pretty lifeless, and I have loved bringing it back to life. I am passionate about biodiversity and planting in harmony with the landscape, where I can let nature take over but in a controlled way. I try to create spaces that are both beautiful for people and valuable for wildlife. I primarily do gardening for myself, and I occasionally design for friends and love to advise on plantings. I am definitely a plant nerd.
I really enjoy the peaks and troughs of the seasons, with the fresh growth of Spring moving onto the slow bleaching of colour through September and October. The end of the season is my favourite time of year when all the late flowering grasses and spent flower heads catch the low Autumn sun. I have always loved the work of garden designer Piet Oudolf who often chooses plants based on their ability to die beautifully. He looks beyond the traditional requirement for plantings and extends the season of interest because of it.
I still take photographs to document the garden. I love getting up close with a macro lens and looking in detail at the plants. I share my photographs as a seasonal diary on Instagram.
I have always thought of things in a three-dimensional way. My photography developed into large multi-layer collage-based compositions in chunky frames, and I also see my garden design work as a three-dimensional form. I am inspired by the sculptural work of artists such as Paolozzi, Chillida, and Hepworth and was itching to make something in a more obviously sculptural way.
Photography, art and adverting, gardening, so how did ceramics enter your life?
Emma. Gardening introduced me to a love of trees and wood, so I tried woodturning and enjoyed the challenge. I had many ideas for things I wanted to make similar to the ceramics I make now; I thought they would look so beautiful made of wood. Unfortunately, I found the process scary; it’s so hazardous, especially if you are a beginner. The chisels were beautiful but very sharp. The man teaching me was brilliant, but he had a lot of scars on his arms, so I thought I might lose a finger or something if I carried on.
I had been thinking about ceramics for a while and thought this might be a safer option. I looked around for courses and shared studio space, and came across The Ceramic Studio in Brenchley. Anthony booked me a taster session for my birthday, and I was hooked, so I immediately signed up for the whole term. The space is fantastic and incredibly well equipped with everything you could possibly need, and they have a great team of very talented tutors who guide you through every stage and never make a judgement on all the wobbly pots. It took me about a year to really start making the pieces I wanted to make without them collapsing.
Initially, I was looking at the sixties and seventies glass and ceramics I collect for inspiration and would try to mimic the interesting shapes. Then, I began cutting and carving into the clay and experimenting with slips and glazes to create something individual to me. I love geometry and precision, which clay does not necessarily want to do. Clay has its own agenda when you are throwing.
To control the clay and form more controlled shapes, I began using ribs, which are specialised wooden tools with a straight edge enabling you to create a straight-edged cylinder. They remove the slurry from the wall of the piece and remove excess water, compacting and strengthening the clay wall. I wanted to push this process further, so I looked back to my woodturning experience and thought about how a wooden tool with a profile could cut into the shapes and make precise forms. I had MDF tools made for me which I still use now, and I became obsessed with the effect they gave. I loved the uniformity and simplicity of it but also the nod to modernist and brutalist architecture. I found an American company that makes many beautiful wooden ribs that create uniform textures and patterns, and I am building up a collection of these amazing tools.
I do a lot of drawing in preparation for my throwing, so I know in advance exactly what shape I will make, which rib I will use, and how tall or wide the vessel will be. I weigh out the clay to make the pieces the same size, but even when I am working from my drawing, they all turn out differently. I like starting with a set idea, but I might pull the clay up a bit higher, making a nice flared neck, or the clay may collapse, and I need to pin off the top to make it slightly shorter than I planned. I enjoy it when one single idea for a shape creates a whole diverse range of vessels. Each piece I make is unique, but because of the similarity in form and uniform glaze, they have started to create a family. I love arranging the finished pieces as stand-alone sculptural forms or as larger groups.
"Somebody told me that one of my pots reminded them of a giant industrial bolt; I hope that’s not an insult. And I said, 'no, that’s brilliant'."
Is what you make evolving, and do you have plans for the future?
Emma. At the moment, I am also experimenting with hand-built sculptures using slabs of rolled clay. I injured my back recently digging in the garden and couldn’t throw on the wheel for a few weeks. Initially, I was annoyed as I love the wheel, but it turned out I also enjoy the slowed-down process of hand-building. I hand roll slabs which I then cut into shapes and construct into small standing forms or geometric tiles, which I plan to finish in oak box frames. It’s a little like constructing a collage, so I am back in my comfort zone. The new pieces are a departure from the thrown work but feel like part of the same family as I use the same clay and glaze throughout.
When I first came to ceramics, I didn’t know what the rules were. I had never done it before and had no clue what I could or couldn’t do, which gave me the freedom to approach it in an experimental way and learn from my mistakes. I enjoy the material and the process and feel I have found something that can incorporate everything I am interested in.
How did it feel to put a price on your creations and start selling them?
Emma. I have found it hard to start selling my work. I have always dealt with the financial side of Anthony’s work and manage the studio, and I am used to dealing with shops and galleries, so I’m comfortable with the business side of things. I saw my ceramic work as a personal adventure to develop my creativity into a new medium. For a long time, I was still experimenting and developing my own voice, so I wanted to keep everything I’d made as a reference and slowly develop things further.
Over time though, I began to build up quite a lot of work, and our shelves and windowsills were filling up. Friends asked if they could buy them and if I was selling them anywhere. Jo and Barrie from Soap & Salvation, who are now good friends, popped over to visit the studio. They both saw my ceramics and were incredibly complimentary and encouraging. I’d often thought Soap & Salvation would be the perfect home for my work. It was wonderful when Jo and Barrie agreed to start stocking my pieces. I value their opinion, and they have been amazing partners in helping me to develop my work to the next stage.
Emma Burrill
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The Ceramic Studio
The Old Workshop Hononton Farm, Furnace Lane, Tonbridge TN12 7BX
info@theceramicstudio.co.uk
www.theceramicstudio.co.uk
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Soap & Salvation
18-22 Rope Walk, Rye TN31 7NA
www.soapandsalvation.com
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