Beverley Sommerville has an MA in Ceramics from Manchester Metropolitan University, received in 2017, after which she established her ceramic studio at home in Cheshire. A studio potter and ceramic artist, Beverley focuses on wheel thrown ceramics inspired by places and storytelling, making two different collections: ‘matter’ & ‘no matter’.
The ‘matter’ collection engages with ideas of material, place and nomadism, gathering materials from the travels and places that inspire Beverley. Capturing a narrative and story, she combines these collected materials with clay, creating unique pieces of still life, installation or one-off forms.
The ‘no matter’ collection is inspired by the Cheshire landscape, a collection about form, detail and developing a coherent visual language in ceramic. Domestic in nature, Beverley’s forms are functional – cups, bowls, candlesticks and jugs. The surface is engaging and tactile, with areas that are glazed or inscribed, made to be held and used.
Beverley says: “Capturing an understanding of place or the narrative of an event, I gather and archive physical materials such as soot, dust or brick fragments. Adding the materials into porcelain creates unique clay bodies to throw on the wheel, making one-off forms or collections as a creative interpretation, I am permanently embedding the moment or place within the object itself. People and places have stories, histories and heritage to record; understanding of place through times of change and redevelopment; I am capturing those lived experiences through material, artistic response and the human endeavour of making with our hands.”