This collection of jugs was originally made as part of the Re:Made exhibition as part of the International ceramics festival in Abserwystwyth 2024

RE:MADE : Upcycled and Assembled in Wales.

This exhibition features ceramicists who challenge traditional production models by repurposing discarded ceramics, embracing salvage, and assembling forms sometimes with reference to historical pottery in Wales. For most of these artists, sustainability is central to their approach and expressed in some aspect of their practice.  

We are grateful to a British Council Biennial Festival Grant which funded the residency to bring the Turkish artist, Elif Ağatekin to work with Welsh artists at the studios at Nantgarw China Works near Cardiff. Famous for its short-lived porcelain production (1813-1820) Nantgarw has a much longer history of pottery production including clay smoking pipes which lasted into the twentieth century. Sally Stubbings has researched the early recipe for the porcelain body and has used this to produce her fragile vessels, metaphors for the huge kiln losses experienced in the early period. Ağatekin is noted for her sculptures based on upcycled industrial ceramics.  Bonnie Grace reimagines the popular tradition of Welsh jugs assembled from cut out shapes.