Claire Baker - the final showcase

13 Apr - 25 May

Free entry

Claire Baker graduated in Ceramics from Bath Spa University in 2009 and was quickly named as just one of 17 crafts people selected by the Crafts Council in 2010 for the 'Hot House' initiative; a 6 month programme of mentoring and business skills.

Her ceramic work draws significant inspiration from the 'aged' & 'distressed beauty' of Miss Haversham's Wedding Table in Dicken’s Great Expectations as well as the darker, more curious elements of Victorian life. A love of theatre and Victorian Gothic combined with a life spent exercising a vivid imagination has encouraged the particular British peculiarity echoed throughout Claire’s ceramic work.

The larger pieces are 'drawings in clay', slab built recreations of drawings & observations, heavily textured & spontaneous. Each piece is fired 5 times to achieve its distinctive patina using a collage of textural surfaces, slips, glazes, transfers and lustres.

This showcase exhibition of Claire’s ceramics with the final show of her clay work. During the lockdown of 2020, she began designing cards, created via digital collage, incorporating her trademark themes of eccentric Victoriana. In a similar process to her former ceramic work, Claire’s collages build layer upon layer, exploring and experimenting with pattern, colour and texture. In 2022, Portico design made contact and since then, Claire’s cards, collages and prints have been much sought-after, capturing the attention of the American market (which has always been crackers for her design and creations.

Claire’s work, whether ceramic or collage highly ornate, adorned with printing and an array of visual ephemera – a look which the artist describes as a ‘sensory banquet’.

Claire has exhibited in London, New York & Geneva. She lives and works from her home in Malmesbury.