SlowthrowCeramics studio, London

Thirteen forms, one volume of clay

A practice of attention.

Each form begins with a gesture of the hand. The same 260 cm³ of clay becomes a teacup, a jar or a flat plate.

See all thirteen forms
SlowthrowCeramics studio, London

A ceramic practice made at human speed

The journey is the making.

A wheel turns and a hand steadies. A small shift in pressure changes the whole silhouette. Slowthrow is a contemporary ceramics practice shaped by these quiet decisions.

Begin with the practice

Mountain and water

Stone garden

Our practice

Our practice

There is a different kind of attention in making something by hand.

Clay keeps moving after the hand lets go. It settles as it dries and changes again in the fire. We leave room for what the material brings, irregularities included.

Japanese and Chinese ceramic traditions shape how we think about proportion, and how everyday ritual gives an object meaning. We study these histories while building a language of our own.

Studio
Slowthrow Ceramics
Based in
London
Method
Thrown on the wheel
Influences
Japanese and Chinese ceramic traditions
Everyday forms
  • Tea bowls
  • Teacups
  • Plates
  • Flower vessels
Lexicon
Thirteen forms, named in Japanese and Mandarin
A white sculptural vessel standing among ink-painted mountains

Yin

陰

The inward gesture

Before the hand moves, there is a moment of attention. It holds the weight of the clay and the space around the form.

Yang

陽

The outward gesture

Then comes the gesture. The wheel turns and a wall rises until the vessel opens. Change arrives through touch.

Pink and white waxflowers glowing in warm, out-of-focus light

What the hand remembers.

Some things are felt before they are seen, like the cool touch of glaze or the warmth a cup gathers in the hand.

A life in vessels.

Every decision at the rim or the foot changes how a vessel is held and lived with. We study the familiar shapes of everyday life, then give them room to become something personal.

Two sculptural vessels, one pale turquoise and one deep brown, against an ink painting
A tall red vessel beside a monochrome ink painting of lotus leaves
Two vessels, one scarlet and black, one jade green, against an ink-wash backdrop

  • The shape of everyday ritual.

    From tea bowls and cups to plates and flower vessels, a small study of proportion and purpose. All thirteen are drawn at one scale with the same 260 cm³ of clay, so every difference comes from shape.

    Choose a form to see it turn at the top of the page.

A cultural thread.

Five Chinese sayings shape how the studio thinks about time and consequence. Each one is read here through clay.

An object is more than form.

An object goes on living beyond the kiln, in the light it catches and the hands that return to it. How it is presented matters too.

Stationery in cream, copper, turquoise and charcoal laid out beside a cotton branch
A presentation box wrapped in cotton, with printed cards and envelopes

The small things.

A mark pressed into paper can be as deliberate as a rim or a foot. The same care goes into the texture of a wrap and the space left around a single character.

A sense of place.

We draw on ink painting and botanicals for the feeling they leave. The aim is a visual world that is quietly distinctive and unmistakably Slowthrow.