Paul Wearing English, b. 1967

Paul Wearing is a member of the vibrant Fireworks Clay Studios cooperative located in Cardiff city centre.  He joined in 2007 and from 2008 to 2013 held the position of Chair and is currently one of the Directors.  He is a Selected Member of the Craft Potters Association and was elected to its Governing Council in 2018.   Paul studied ceramics to post graduate level and exhibits and delivers workshops and talks across the UK and internationally.  He has been the recipient of numerous funding awards from the Arts Council of Wales.

Paul's hand-built sculptural vessels are inspired by our interconnectedness with nature’s seasons and cycles. It is the correlation between the slower emerging cycles of nature and the making processes which harness innate material qualities leading to alchemical developments within the kiln that underpins his work.

"I am drawn to the vessel as a great symbol of civilisation and one that echoes the built environment in which I live. In contrast, naturally occurring textures found within both urban and rural environments perpetually interact and alter this sense of order. Surfaces undergo energetic change and transformation through forces of growth and decay, and it is these events; the evidence of lived moments which can be seen as life affirming."

"Such textures can be rendered through volatile and blistering glazes and my relationship with clay and glaze materials is fundamental and profound, rooted within the challenge of rendering emotional expression through their innate qualities. The tension between the orderly, symmetrical handmade forms and glaze phenomena in my work, further brings in to focus aspects of the human condition."

"The vessels are formed using two techniques: Press-moulding enables me to quickly form the base whilst coiling is a slower, more meditative approach allowing flexibility and a different approach to control over the vessel shape and size as it develops. Certain marks and textures revealing the making process remain as a ground for the glazing."

"My approach to my practice embraces contrasts of control and chance within the glazing process. This can be seen within my treatment of the surface which renders evidence of intentional brush marks and chemical reactions of the glaze. The surface is built up and transformed through the brushed application of multiple layers of slips and glazes – generally six glazes and two slips are used on each piece. The pressure, direction and speed of the brush connecting with the vessel’s surface determines only some of the outcome. The surface develops in a partnership between me, the materials and process. Layers simultaneously build and crumble under the application of further layers. The process begins to reveal its own language, determined in part, by chance."

"Once applied the glaze materials are set to react within the conditions of the oxidised firing process. Here the inclusion of selective volatile materials brings further disruption to the surface through blistering, cratering and crawling."

"Glazing and firing processes are repeated until the optimum depth and complexity of surface appears."