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"She Sells Sea Shells"

Caitlin Froud

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I’m a ceramicist and storyteller from the small English seaside town of Whitstable, world famous for its oysters. My work has a heavy importance on connecting you to a place through it's local materials, fuelled by a sugary sour beachy nostalgia and a deep connection to my hometown and its landscape.

I’m a ceramicist and storyteller from the small English seaside town of Whitstable, world famous ...

At its heart, my work intends to connect you to the small seaside town of Whitstable I call home, telling a story through broken poetry and its local materials. 

Growing up by the sea means I have been graced with buckets full of sweet girlhood memories of taking part in the town's annual Oyster Festival held in the summertime. 

Fuelled by this sugary sour beachy nostalgia written in broken poetry and a deep connection to Whitstable’s landscape, my ceramic collection uses oyster harvest baskets often seen in the harbour as a muse and local waste oyster shells and oak ash from my fireplace as alternative glaze ingredients that represent a hometown landscape, adding potent meaning to the ceramic wares and hopes to start a dialogue around why materials matter.

Final work

poetry about growing up by the sea in a town obsessed with oysters

broken poetry musing about growing up by the sea in Whitstable, a town world famous for its oysters.

a flared stoneware pot on a grey concrete floor that have just been removed from the wheel

stoneware harvest basket

width 20cm x height 23cm

a close up the inside of a stoneware pot where an oyster shell has been pressed into, interrupting the throwing lines

oyster shell traces

a ceramic glaze made from oyster shells and oak ash, light caramel brown colour with drippy glossy streaks that pool down into the base

Research and process

oyster shells in a bowl on a grey concrete marbled floor that have been fired in the kiln and are now bleached white

part of my material research :

oyster shells that have been fired in the kiln ready to be crushed into a fine powder and added as a glaze ingredient.

a pot that has been thrown on the wheel and is just about to be removed. 20cm wide and 23cm tall

throwing my oyster baskets on the wheel

width 20cm x height 23cm

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"She Sells Sea Shells"

At its heart, my work intends to connect you to the small seaside town of Whitstable I call home, telling a story through broken poetry and its local materials. Growing up by the sea means I have been graced with buckets full of sweet girlhood memories of taking pa...

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