Abi Higgins

Abi Higgins is a potter living in Devon in the South West where she works from her studio occupying an old barn attached to her house.

Abi, who has always had a passion for ceramics came to the craft later in life having started out as a dancer. She then transferring to the fitness industry to teach dance, aerobics, spin, pilates and yoga before moving to Devon twenty years ago.

An opportunity arose to start once a week pottery classis. She brought her own wheel to practice throwing and started a 3D design course and a part time pottery apprenticeship.  Abi is mostly self-taught having never really had any formal education in Ceramics but has attended workshops with Master Potters which have all added to her education. She has always found that her earlier dancing discipline of practice, practice, practice is how she learns the most alongside a deep curiosity of the process of making beautiful pots.

Abi throws most of her work then turns the pots to refine the shape finishing them off with age-old processes used in Roman times to refine the surfaces. She uses Terra Sigillata on the blackened necks of vases and inside bowls and burnishes the Naked Raku pots to create an extremely smooth surface. Both the Terra Sigillata and burnishing the clay, create a soft sheen on the surface of the pot giving it the appearance of a glaze.

Making a refined flowing shape out of a ball of clay is a never-ending enthralment and inspiration in Abi’s work. The true line, making the pot at ease with itself therefore easy to look at again and again.

Abi’s pots are very grounded. The clay is from the earth and the decoration is created from the elements. Her Raku fired work uses simple oxides, smoke and flames to create the fascinating surface decoration.