Matt Raw Ceramic workshop

I know, you’ve been dying to see my creations from the 3-week ceramics course I did at Matt Raw’s workshop. First some background on our teacher. Matt is from Manchester and studied at the University of Brighton then the RCA. He’s done lots of group shows and a residency at the V&A as well as tutoring at various universities including his alma mater, and collaborating with various other artists including Mawuena Kattah who works with charity Intoart. Also, – My Friend’s House favourite – the lovely Flower Appreciation Society girls. When I spoke to him about his own work I was fascinated by how much it comments on social issues. “My ideal project is ideas first and then you’ve got to find the form to work it out and communicate the idea. It doesn’t always have to be ceramic, but I do think in ceramics more than anything else,” he told me. An example of this way of working goes back to his days at Brighton, “when my parents gave my bedroom to help house asylum seekers who were in between systems. I felt I had permission to discuss that subject. It’s got to be personal rather than being ‘oh isn’t the Panama scandal crazy’ and then doing a piece about that.”

Matt’s tiled pub facade that he created for the Jerwood Gallery more recently, entitled The Shifting Spirit, was designed in response to the changes happening where he lives in ever-gentrifying East London. “I believe the pub is a key social indicator into what is happening in an area so I made a fictional, but actual sized, ceramic pub façade discussing the change happening where I live,” he said in a blog for the V&A during his residency there. “Hand-rolling the 250+ tiles inevitably focussed my attention onto tiles and their manufacture, history, and arrangement.”

The pub, having done a tour with the Jerwood, lately found a permanent and appropriate home at Five Points Brewing Company in Broadway Market. “Obviously it’s a trendy ale, which is very East London, which talks about exactly what I was talking about with the piece – gentrification, the changing face of it, what my role is in amongst all of that,” Matt told me. Here are some of his other works.

Matt has taught for some years now but the studio he shares as part of the Manifold collective was a key motivator in getting him into hosting regular workshops. “Part of me wishes I was completely different to my parents and I could be something totally new but my Dad is an artist and my Mum is a teacher and I do feel I’m pretty 50/50 like that,” he says. The 3-class formula, which I enjoyed for its pace, came about partly because of the techniques he wanted to teach, all of which are based around hand building rather than working on the wheel. “The competition out there is 10-12 week long courses. You might be thinking ‘I want to take some clay courses’ but you’re taking a hell of a leap from doing nothing to doing a 10 week course,” he explains of this. “I wanted to keep it fresh and quick. It’s approachable, intense but chilled, and a mixture of structure and play. Hosting is a key word in it, from playing music to making people feel comfortable.”

I’m going to refer you back to my earlier post about the format of the course I took and before I unveil my creations – a test piece, a cat bowl and a, well a thing you can see in a moment – I’d like to highlight for the benefit of Matt that many of the people in my class made brilliant well-made things – jugs, bowls, plates, even wall-hanging planters.

I drew some images in a sketch book…

…and for my main piece (on top of the cat bowl, which if it were better would just be called a bowl) went for the one based on this beautiful chair by Muller van Severen, which I saw as two forms, creating an interesting bowl.