CENTRE FOR MODERN & CONTEMPORARY
STUDIO CERAMICS AND ORIGINAL ARTWORK

Janet Hamer’s birds are first and foremost sculptures made in ceramics. There is excitement in the essentialised shapes and the use of colour.
Hollow vessels are transformed by simple additions into evocations of geese, ducks and grebes. A subject is always based on a particular species, observing the shape evolved for a lifestyle, the patterns and colours. The translation into fired clay, slips and glazes may appear to be true to life or may display more imaginative selectivity, moving from ornithology to sculptural choices.

She has studied many aspects of ceramics, in workshops and galleries, particularly when researching for The Potter’s Dictionary. She travelled in China studying celadons and local making and firing techniques, in 1981. In 1993 she made geese in very high-fired industrial porcelain at the International Symposium in the Czech Republic.

In 2003 she worked with a potter in Iceland. She has been making ceramics in South Wales for many years and her work is now widely recognised and collected. Her studio is attached to the house in a pleasant rural area close to the Monmouthshire and Brecon canal. She is currently developing ideas for toucans, parrots and macaws. When not making birds or preparing The Potter’s Dictionary, she enjoys hill-walking, painting and music.

Janet has won First Prize for ceramics at the National Eisteddfod of Wales. She writes articles and reviews on ceramics for Ceramic Review, Crefft/Craft, Ceramics Technical and Shards. Janet and Frank have recently revised and expanded their book “THE POTTER’S DICTIONARY OF MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES”, (5th Edition A&C Black). In recognition of this work, Janet Hamer and Frank Hamer were jointly awarded the prestigious “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the 2005 International Potters Festival in Aberystwyth.