Jacqui Ramrayka

JACQUI RAMRAYKA

Jacqui Ramrayka is a ceramicist with a love of the vessel in its many forms – the idea of containment fascinates and continually challenges her. Although she began her ceramics journey as a hand builder, she found throwing on the wheel suited her exploration better. She trained at Harrow, on the renowned ceramics course, graduating in 1994 with a BA(Hons) Ceramics. After completing her degree, she founded the ceramics studio Archway Ceramics, along with a group of fellow graduates. She combined working there with teaching until she had her family. Following a stint at Kingsgate Workshops, she now works from her studio at home.

Her current work is mainly thrown, however hand built projects are an ongoing interest. She continues to focus on the vessel form, working in series and making one-off pieces. She finds her inspiration in natural and urban landscapes, as well as the seemingly random and mundane – pebbles on a beach, rusty metal tools, peeling layers of paint, found objects that suggest a fragment of a story- and it’s also these things which inform her colour palette.
Jacqui works primarily with porcelain as, despite its tricky nature, it has the right qualities for the finishes she wants to achieve and explore. The surfaces of her vessels are important to her; she uses them as a way to express a narrative and achieve a patina of depth and variety. The vessels are layered with oxides and glazes, brushed and dipped, and often multi-fired. They are used as a canvas to investigate the myriad combinations of texture and colour. This unpredictability ensures each piece is unique.