MICHAELA GALL

When I first started making ceramics I hadn’t intended to draw all over them. I thought I would be making pots with esoteric glazes but as soon as I started making slipware the stories and characters started appearing, the 3D surface was great for depicting people running after one another or hiding. Then the underneath of a bowl or plate could tell a totally different story. A ceramic spoon could resemble a hand held mirror, a fork’s prongs became Devil’s horns. A plate’s border could become an Elizabethan ruff.

I make (mostly) domestic ware in maiolica or tin glaze which is a wonderful surface to paint on. Maiolica also has an intriguing history originating in Iraq/ Mesopotamia and developed by potters who actually signed their names as long ago as the 9th century. I love this early pottery often decorated with calligraphy or very simple patterns, which every region developed to their own tastes and colours.

Michaela Gall studied illustration at Chelsea School of Art, on an exchange programme at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts and recently at Turps Banana cc. She has exhibited her ceramics at RA Summer Exhibition, Messums and received commissions from Westminster Abbey shop, Couverture & The Garbstore, Dulwich Picture Gallery (centenary plate), The Shop Floor Project and Broadwick Soho Hotel where 170 plates are hung in restaurant Dear Jackie.