Grasping the Orient beakers, stoneware, h10cm x w8cm
Collaboration (detail), stoneware
Michelle Freemantle
Michelle Freemantle's ceramic pieces are created through a mix of hand-built, press mould and thrown techniques. She uses stoneware clay, incorporating slips and oxides into a scratched surface. Most include snippets of thoughts or poetry written during her travels or evoking the subtleties of an environment that has particularly moved her. Her series Grasping the Orient was born from the visual and cultural impact Japan has had on her.
Michelle has worked with renowned porcelain artist Margaret O'Rorke, as well as with Rob Bibby at Woodnewton Pottery and as assistant to salt glazer Christine Pedley in La Borne, France. In the summer of 2002 she was selected to take part in IWCAT 2000, an international workshop in Tokoname, Japan and was subsequently invited back there to make work for an international group exhibition. She also spent time studying in Finland, returning two years later to make a body of work in a studio in Hameenlinna.
Her 2007 exhibitions included East Riding Open Studios, Potfest in the Pens, Penrith, East Riding Artists, Pyramid Gallery, York, NPA at the Lund Gallery, York and Three Ceramicists, Goole.