Louise Condon’s botanical ceramics capture the essence of nature in each handcrafted piece
STEADYING CURLING TENDRILS with a scalpel’s edge, Louise Condon gently coaxes pink tips of vetch from shallow grooves; finally peeling back the whole stem and adding it to the small pile of greenery on her workbench. It is a delicate task, but one she finds totally absorbing: an important step in the preser vation of the plants she gathered from this morning’s foray into the countryside. Now, back in her studio, she works surrounded by flowers, in the scents of the summer garden that drift through the window. Spears of lavender burst from jugs and vases, and dried seedheads hang in bunches from the ceiling. Besides kiln and rollers, buckets under the benches are filled with the browning, pulpy stems of flowers starting to decay.
As a ceramic botanist, Louise has turned her life-long love of nature and collecting into a thriving business, designing rustic-style pottery, which she builds by hand from her Chester home. She documents the life of plants and flowers in clay; spiriting them from one type of earth to another; capturing their beauty through the various stages of their lives. Finished pieces are stacked on knotted shelves around the long wooden walls of her studio; platters, plaques and dishes trimmed with waving stems and sprays of bowing foliage.
“I’ve always been fascinated with the shapes of natural objects, such as shells, pebbles and flowers, and the seasonality of plants as they change,” she says. “I’ve always grown plants, and one of my favourite things is to be among nature. I love the Arts and Crafts movement – Karl Blossfeldt, Gaudi, with his organic shapes and forms; anything natureand plant-based. It shaped the direction I took.”
Taking root
As a dyslexic, Louise had often struggled at school, but everything fell into place when, with just a few qualifications to her name, she enrolled at her local art college. “As soon as I walked in and saw everything, I knew it was the right place. I loved pattern, texture and making, and I quickly got hooked on clay. I’m a practical learner – I learn through doing. I would spend hours after college in the ceramics room, hand-building.”
After specialising in applied arts at university, she began teaching pottery and art to adults with mental health difficulties and children with special needs, before returning to teach art and design at her old college for 22 years. “I loved the combination of helping people a
