Anna Silverton was born in Gloucestershire, the Forest of Dean. She moved to the Vale of Evesham in Worcestershire where she spent her developing years. After a foundation course at Cheltenham, she moved to London to train at Camberwell School of Art. There, she subsequently gained her MA at the Royal College of Art.
After completing her Master’s degree she lived in America, where she gained valuable teaching experience at Syracuse University. On her return from America in the 1990s she benefited from a Crafts Council grant. This meant she could set up her own studio. She has kept a studio in London ever since, her current one is at her home in Sydenham, London.
Anna also works part-time at Morley College in London, where she is Program Manager of the HND Ceramics course. She feels very lucky to work with such a talented team and to teach such well-motivated students. She finds it brings balance to her studio practice as a ceramicist, which is by nature solitary. All her vases and bowls are wheel thrown. She likes to stop and repeat structures, through cutting, joining and reshaping on the wheel, to discover new forms and hone them. Large pieces are usually thrown in two pieces and joined while they are still pliable for re-shaping on the wheel; small pieces are partly dried and then re-thrown to achieve precise, and dynamic, contours.
She places particular importance on the ceramic surface which she works on the wheel until very smooth then burnishes (low fired clay bodies) or polishes (vitrified stoneware bodies.) She uses a mix of incised and/or inlaid detailing to enhance volume and punctuate profile.
