Each month we are sharing more about our Ceramic Subscribers who join us year round in the Ceramics Studio at SSW.
Ceramics Subscription enables people to have regular, independent access to SSW’s Ceramics Studio along with some technical guidance. It is aimed at supporting a broad range of people with existing skills and experience working in ceramics as well as those who are beginners. We support people who are keen to develop their ceramics skills and knowledge with regular workshop access. You’ll be able to develop your own projects and practice clay skills within a friendly group with access to a wide range of equipment and materials.
You can find out more about Ceramics Subscription at SSW here.
This month’s blog is by artist Jessica Crisp, who first came to SSW on Group Residency in 2025 and has continued joining us as one of our Ceramics Subscribers. Find out about Jess’ creative practice and what she’s been working on recently at SSW.
Words and images below by Jessica Crisp.
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I studied Printmaking at Gray’s School of Art, graduating in 2007 and I have worked since as a Printmaker, technician, teacher and community arts practitioner. Throughout I have made my own prints, ceramics, textiles and artists books and exhibited them nationally and internationally.
My recent focus has been in combining text and image. I write about my experiences, spend time outside drawing animals and landscapes from life and take these words and imagery into print processes.
In 2025 I completed a month’s residency at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop (SSW). In Lumsden I started to work with throwing and slip casting forms, and using print processes with the surfaces and shapes of these ceramic vessels.
I am working on a series of thrown and slip cast spherical ‘moon jar’ vessels, which I have been developing into lamps, with dyed, printed and pleated silk shades. I have been developing print processes to work with these porcelain and stoneware forms.
To make simple dry point intaglio prints on the vessels I have been drawing from life outside in the landscape by scratching into plastic plates, inking the drawings with a combination of metal oxides and linseed oil and using a slab roller to print the plates onto potters tissue which I then transfer onto the leather hard clay forms.
After much experimentation I have developed an oxide transfer paper which allows me to create transfers with my type writer or by hand directly and spontaneously, to use my writing on my vessels.
I have become a subscriber at the SSW this year, which allows me to use the ceramics studio on an open access basis and benefit from the guidance of the wonderful technicians and staff. I have been spending two days at SSW each month, to continue to build up my skills and knowledge of ceramics.
For years my work with print has referenced familiar domestic vessels and spaces, reflecting I think the ambivalence I feel towards female identification with the domestic, the maternal and the role of carer. I am interested in the pleasures and familiar reflective spaces of daily life – the handholds by which we move from day to day.
In working with Printed Ceramics I am able to experiment with the tactile surface of my prints across forms with volume. I can combine my drawings and poems in print on pieces which people can use daily in their homes.
Developing less toxic and more environmentally friendly, sustainable ways of working with Print processes has been a long running passion of mine. I experiment, test and develop less toxic print processes and prioritise using local, natural sustainable resources. I am working on bringing these interests and knowledge to my experiments with print and ceramics.
I have been working recently on harvesting small quantities of clay from seams on the beach where I live in Golspie, gathered mindfully in small quantities without harm to the existing ecosystems. I have also been using ash to incorporate in glazes, which is a by-product of the Biomass boiler at my work at Dunrobin Castle gardens.
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You can find out more about Jessica’s work on Jessica’s instagram page.
