Isle of Wight based ceramicist living on the Undercliff in one of the largest areas of urban landslip in Europe, Chloé Rosetta Bell examines the livelihoods dependent on the natural landscape within her designs.
The changing nature of the island’s landscape led Chloe to become continually aware of the materials that surround her. Collecting and exploring the strips of clay, sand and chalk that make up the cliffs which have slipped overtime, Chloe began working with the cliff matter as materials to inform her work.
The outcomes become “a tangible celebration of the landscape, placing a subtle but essential emphasis on its sustainability. They act as a physical and sensory record that preserves the landscape.” We speak to Chloe as we delve deeper into her making process and material palette of earth’s natural resources.
Can you tell us about the Undercliff collection? What’s the story behind it?
The land surrounding me is continually changing and responding to the impact of the sea and its own geological composition. My objects are physical and sensory records of my experience in the land. They are for me a tangible celebration of the land and water surrounding it at a particular moment in time.
How does nature inform your work?
For the Undercliff collection, I work with a local fisherman to source fossilised wood, crab and lobster shells – a by-product of his livelihood. As well as gathering landfall from the cliffs below my studio to develop wild sand slips and glazes.
Do you have a favourite piece you’ve created?
From my latest collection, I have a piece called Cliff Ridge Vessel I with a brass lid. I love the glaze on this piece, every side, underneath and inside. I couldn’t bring myself to put a metal bottom on the base. It felt like each angle had its own reaction and moment.
What does a day in your studio look like?
I have just had a baby so my life in the studio is much slower, I work in the outbuildings of my home so I can thankfully pop over and get moments in the studio or Layla-Thea is content to play in the garden as I work. My studio day often looks like a typical potter when I’m in the middle of a collection. Throwing, turning, mixing glaze, slips, glazing and firing work.
My weeks are peppered with walks to the cliffs or the fishery to collect raw materials, then I prepare them in the studio before I can use them in my work. The glazing process is very much like painting, I enjoy applying layers of slip in flowing strokes and adding areas of shells or fossilised wood thinking through the colours and textures they will give to the piece in the end.
Is there anywhere you’d really love to travel to for inspiration?
There is an island called Lofoten in Norway I would love to visit and work from. It has a feeling similar to the island here but in the extreme. I would love to spend time observing and working there.
Do you experiment with different materials?
Yes, my latest exploration is fossilised wood — found mid-English channel 25-35 nautical miles to the south and southwest of the Undercliff. It’s old, more than you’d think, roughly 8,000 years. To put it in context, that is 3,000 years older than Stonehenge and 5,000 years older than the Egyptian pyramids.
This ancient fossilised wood now occasionally gets caught up in the lobster and crab pots of Ed, a local fisherman (I can see his boat go out from my studio window). It’s thought that the wood originally lined the old Solent River that flowed down to enter the sea where the South West Approaches are today. The melting of the sea ice at the end of the last ice age caused a giant Tsunami which demolished the woods and flooded the whole area that we now call the English Channel.
Can you tell us about your process from initial designs to final creation?
I often imagine the whole collection first, forming the shapes and setting while I am out on the cliffs. I return to the studio and sketch them out before throwing them on the wheel. From there they develop and change as I throw and turn the clay. Once the forms are refined they go through multiple firings in the gas kiln before I finish the pieces with metal bases or lids. I have one or two glazes I develop for each collection. The under cliff has three: a fossilised wood ash glaze, a crab and lobster glaze and a seaweed ash glaze.
What does craftsmanship mean to you?
I have great admiration for craftsmanship and it’s something I value in my own work and others. For me craftsmanship is objects that are made with expertise, practice and devotion.
What’s next for Chloé Rosetta Bell?
I am busy in the studio working on the summer collection of the Undercliff which I hope to launch in August or September depending on my little one. I also have a supper club coming up in November which will be a new collection in a new location.
Discover more about the ceramic collections by Chloé Rosetta Bell.
Read more Meet the Maker interviews here on enki.
