Stephen Adams

Stephen was originally trained as an apprentice mechanical engineer in the 1960s. He returned to college in the 1970s and studied ceramics at Loughborough College of Art & Design obtaining a first class Honours degree.

After completing a PGCE in Art & Design, Stephen taught pottery for thirty years in Walsall. Since retiring he has begun to revisit the themes that originally inspired his work.

“Mechanical and man-made forms are of special interest particularly when aged and decayed. Raku is a method that I have employed more recently as it lends itself to a less predictable even chaotic outcome, which contrasts with the more controlled sculptural forms”.

Forms are constructed using slabs, coils, extruded sections and press moulded pieces. Depending on the complexity of the form and clarity of colour required for the glazes, either Potclays Smooth Raku body or ‘T’ material are used.

Crystalline glazes and thrown porcelain with relief decorations has become a recent passion and has led again to controlled forms that are altered and enhanced by the apparently chaotic/random nature of the firing and glazing process.

Artists and designers who have been of particular interest and inspiration are, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Coper, Eduardo Paolozzi and Isambard Kingdom Brunel.