Jo Marshall

Jo Marshall has been making work with clay for over 15 years. She studied art and design to degree level and the experience she gained as a graphic designer remains a strong influence in her ceramics and pottery practice.

Working from her studio in Oxfordshire, Jo has been experimenting with a range of techniques involving various clays, glazes and coloured slips, and has also been trialling different ways of firing and decorating pieces using fire pits.

The unique bodies of works she has created include a series exploring contemporary myth-making and story-telling. Drawing on traditional motifs, these include a particular focus on the hare and the moon and the mythologies evoked by the relationship between them.

Many of her more recent vessels have been created through the trial and error inherent in the fire-pit. Here the plain, burnished bisc fired pots are placed in the centre of a bonfire where they become marked by the materials burning alongside them: seaweed, cowpats, banana skins or other organic matter.

From this experimentation, she has found a freedom of expression that has resulted in a very different body of work, mainly large hand built bottles that feature brightly coloured abstract architectural landscapes.