Fenella Elms Studio is based on the edge of the Wiltshire downs in the heart of the countryside.
Fenella won prizes in both ceramics and design and her work has been presented in ceramic art books, as well as interiors and architecture magazines. Fenella’s work has been commissioned publicly and privately and has been purchased for exhibition in museum and privately held collections. Fenella died of cancer in December 2022; hard to believe when her fascination of the world continues to burst through her designs with vigour and vivacity. Read Fenella’s Testament below.
Fenella Elms Studio Team
Hebe Elms
Fenella’s daughter Hebe has been around throughout to see the studio grow from the first ever Flow to international exhibitions. She’s always played a part, whether discussing ideas for new artworks or running the Instagram.
Charlie Elms
Much the best at logistics, Charlie manages the business of orders: from suppliers to payments and shipping.
Support Team
Hannah Mears is our brilliant website designer with great ideas and an extraordinary eye for detail. Hannah is a hugely reassuring presence, always available to manage the website and keep digital things in order. With a passion for thoughtful design, Hannah has developed our new shop from web presence to printing and packaging.
Without photos, the business would not have started; essential for applications, catalogues, publications and the website. We are very grateful for the patience, imagination and good humour of photographers David Parmiter and Deborah Husk who show us how they see it.
Suppliers
Charlie counted until he got to over a hundred suppliers who keep us afloat. From pottery to printers, crates to clamps, van repairs to shippers, metal workers to wood workers, framers to fabrics; some are an essential extension. Thank you.
Fenella’s Testament
Here are some words from Fenella by which she lived and worked.
“I first discovered working with clay when I was taught to throw by a school teacher who enthusiastically took the class out to see a Lucy Rie exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1981. I sought out workshops and classes over the years until I was given a wheel in 2004, which quickly led to Swindon College to study for an Art Foundation and HNC in ceramics (2008).
I keep fish, bees, ducks and sheep and take pleasure in noticing how a feather holds together, bees build, flowers unfold and sheep gather in a co-operative stance. I don’t seek to put what I see into clay: I notice movement, growth, structure and interaction and it seeps into the process. With this approach, it is possible to find a way through the visual to reach an expression of the experience.The making process is a practice carried over from previous psychoanalytical work: putting all the preparation aside, attentive, available to the work’s potential, allowing and attending to the unexpected, trusting the process. The repetitive nature of bringing together many components creates a rhythm and facilitates an active trance of intention. The finished work is a mix of the familiar and strangeness; I like the dissonance and have come to bear the disappointments. There is a pleasure in making just in the pursuit of an idea, rather than an outcome.
Porcelain slip is my material; a pleasure to pour, spread and squeeze. All the components are cast before building, waiting for the right stage of softness for them to work together. My making processes have developed in response to porcelain’s contradictory qualities of fragility and permanence, strength and delicacy, sharpness with a wavering softness in the kiln, before firing to a solid translucency. All the work comes out of the drive to show off, challenge, question the material qualities of porcelain.”
On Show
