Jane Hamlyn (1940 – )

Jane Hamlyn was born in London and trained originally as a nurse at University College Hospital, before enrolling at Harrow School of Art in 1971. She has exhibited in the UK and in Europe and her work is included in national collections. Hamlyn says of her work "I make salt-glazed pots for use and ornament. I believe that functional pots have a unique role to play in the arena of the applied arts, in that they provoke audience participation: when handling a pot and considering ways to fill it, the user enters into and continues the creative life of the object." Each piece has its own character from the rounded soft edges that give added strength to the form, to the sprigged, stamped and incised decoration. Textured surfaces are sometimes formed through pressing the clay into anaglypta wallpaper. The works are salt-glazed in a range of colours from deep midnight blue to palest grey. The glazing technique is inherently unpredictable but the effects of the glaze as it runs and curdles in the firing process, producing the occasional lustrous or crystalline streak, suggests an affinity with natural phenomena that makes salt glaze visually so satisfying.