Masterclass with Judy McKenzie

My return to ceramics after a lengthy career in the design and print industry was long overdue. I fell in love with clay at school and dared to dream that my future would involve ceramics. Unfortunately, I listened to the careers advisors who encouraged me to get a proper job and pursue ceramics as a hobby. However, my love for clay never diminished.

A chance meeting with an old school friend led me to enrol in a BA course in 3D Craft and Design and the following three years were life-changing. I was running into college every morning to discover new ways to be creative with wonderful materials – it was inevitable that clay would win through.

Every year, our course founder would visit the Royal College of Art (RCA) graduation show to entice the graduates to visit our college to impart their considerable skills. It was this strong thread with the RCA and the encouragement of my tutors that led me to go on to study for my MA there. It was a difficult but life-affirming couple of years and I look back through the tears and chocolate with thanks for the wonderful opportunity to study with such a talented group of fellow students and tutors.

Whilst at the RCA, one of our tutors demonstrated the patterning effect that two colours of porcelain can produce when combined. This simple demonstration captured my imagination and led me to investigate working with coloured clay. I searched through YouTube videos (Curtis Benzle was particularly generous) and gathered as much information as I could find on my new-found interest, Nerikomi. It is fair to say, I was hooked.

Nerikomi is an ancient technique, but one that lends itself beautifully to contemporary and unique interpretations. I have found that no two artists tackle the technique in quite the same way and it is this uniqueness that I find so powerful, drawing me time and again to this magical process. The endless possibilities for creating new patterns, colour combinations and forms are extremely exciting.

I graduated with my MA in 2018 and since then, it has been a steep and often very frustrating learning curve. Initially, I used controlled pattern combinations to create the material from which a piece can be formed but I have continued to push my imagination to create different ways to allow a more fluid and liberated way of exploring coloured clay. The process I have developed is my interpretation of Nerikomi.

I am continuing to investigate the nuances of this process and explore building techniques that allow for a range of different forms. Slab-building is particularly successful and it is this process that I have demonstrated in the following pages. Like all slab-built ware, there is an optimum time for the clay to be handled and this is particularly true of Nerikomi. This demanding technique requires patience and time, but perseverance and an over developed sense of optimism will reap fabulous rewards.

For more details visit judymckenzie.com; @judymckenzieceramics

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