After 20 years of working in mental health, Fenella’s love of pottery took over and her day job was set aside to complete an art qualification followed by a course in ceramics at Swindon college where she graduated in 2008.
The Fenella Elms Studio is based in Wiltshire, in the heart of the English countryside. She works in porcelain slip and hand-casts every component to make sure each is perfect before firing in the kiln. She captures life and movement in porcelain and each of her pieces seems to be alive with organic,
textural energy.
“All the work builds by connecting individual parts, developing an interaction through placing in formation. The shifting components form a fluid, co-operative body.”
Fenella says “I doesn’t seek to put what I see into clay: I notice movement, growth, structure and interaction and it seeps into the process”. She has become well known for her flow works, where individually shaped pieces of porcelain are arranged into highly textured, rhythmic works which seem to have a life of their own.
She works to commission with her small team to produce wall hangings and panelling as well as free standing pieces.
