Adam Ross

Adam Ross is a ceramicist using pottery as a means of sculptural exploration. Driven to create pieces with their own personality, Adam has developed innovative techniques to produce his tableware and artworks, from slicing pieces with wire to unexpected glaze applications. Having trained in ceramics from an early age, Adam went on to study ceramics at the Glasgow School of Art. He currently runs his own practice, and is also studio manager at the Kiln Rooms, London – an open access pottery studio.

Maker's Story

THE PROCESS

Adam Ross typically works from a potter’s wheel, throwing thick cylindrical forms before slicing the clay and applying glaze to transform the material into something unpredictable, sculptural, and one of a kind. While often repeating a particular glaze, shape and size, each individual object created by Adam will be unique owing to the hand-cut nature of his process.

Q&A

1. What motivates you to make?

For me, making ceramics is a therapeutic, almost meditative activity. When I’m at the potter’s wheel, or at my work bench handling slabs of clay, I get a feeling of absorption which I don’t feel with any other activity. A whole day can go by, and at the end of it, I realise I haven’t thought about anything else. This feeling is my primary motivation for making ceramics.

2. What and/or who are you most inspired or influenced by?

The influences that help inform and shape my work are wide-ranging across the disciplines of sculpture and studio pottery, and the work I make is often an amalgamation of styles that I’m interested in. The sculptural work of Eduardo Chillida has always inspired me, along with my interests in British and Asian studio pottery.

3. What is your unique approach to your craft, and how have you honed your skills?

There are limitless avenues to explore when working with clay. As someone who enjoys many of the processes (including throwing, slab building, and coiling), I try to combine these techniques to form my making process. I nearly always start by throwing and faceting cylinders, which I then cut up and hand build with, to try and create a 3D collage.

4. What is your defining or proudest moment as a maker so far?

This may sound like a minor achievement, but the sense of pride one gets from opening a kiln to find a successful new glaze test is probably it. Developing a new glaze is a very chemistry-heavy process, and for some makers (myself included) it can be the most difficult part of the making process.

5. What is your dream project?

I enjoy the repetition of making several teapots or mugs, one after the other, but if I were to think about a dream project, it would probably involve working to a larger scale. I’d love to design and produce a large-scale sculpture, with the possibility of working with other materials like wood and metal.