Teachers
Sophie Southgate
Sophie began working with clay in 2006 at Bromley Adult Education Centre. Sophie went on to study at Cardiff School of Art, graduating in 2014 with a First Class BA Hons in Ceramics. That year she won a full scholarship to study at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina in the summer. Sophie spent a year as a Graduate Resident at Fireworks Clay Studios in Cardiff, refining her studio practice and exhibiting her Landscape//Colour series around the UK. In December 2015 she was shortlisted for the Confessions of a Design Geek Bursary. Her work has been sold in Darkroom London and Selfridges, The Barbican Shop, Gallery Ten Cardiff and Snug Gallery, and she is a member of the Contemporary Applied Arts gallery.
In the Spring of 2017 Sophie was accepted onto the Crafts Councils Hothouse program, supporting new artists and designers. She won a European ceramics competition to become 2017 FutureLights in Ceramics winner alongside 5 others. Read more about Sophie Southgate here.
Cat King
Cat began teaching Art in Schools in 2001 . Predominantly self taught, she developed an interest in clay after searching for an alternative to building sculptures in paper and mixed media. Through working with clay, Cat has developed her sculpting and fine detail skills. Her work combines multiple hand-building methods to create complex forms. She has a particular interest in using illustration and surface design in her work, as well as experimenting with different decorative applications. Cat finds inspiration in literature and poetry, proverbs, nature and pattern.
Cat is the Clay Room’s studio manager, coordinating with teachers and studio assistants to help keep everything running smoothly. She teaches classes on Mondays and Thursday mornings, as well Clay Taster Workshops and private lessons and Summer Short Courses.
Emma Marks
Emma Marks is a clay thinker, ceramic vessel maker and art educator. She uses vessel making as a device to reimagine the ways we understand the making act and our relationships with the world around us. Her installations offer the viewer new encounters using hand-built ceramics, sound and film.
Emma currently teaches ceramics as a visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire; she recently ran pottery workshops at Wilderness Festival 2022 and assists with the Clay for Dementia Group at The Garden Museum, London.
Emma has an MA in Ceramics from the Royal College of Art, a BA in Sculpture from Camberwell College of Arts and a BSc in Physiology from the University of Bristol. She has taken part in several artist-led shows since 2012. Selected exhibitions and awards include the Charlotte Fraser Ceramics & Glass Shortlist at Holt Festival 2022; Caroline Fisher Projects in Norwich and London 2021, Cabinet of Curiosities at the Design Museum 2021, The Potting Shed Residency at Fulmer Sculpture Park 2021, East Sussex Open at Towner Gallery 2016, HIX Award Finalist 2015, Penguin Art Prize 2015.
Emma teaches Thursday evening classes as well as some Private Lessons.
Tom Salt
Tom is the newest teacher to join studio. Tom is a studio potter based in South East London. Currently working from a studio in Woolwich, he produces handmade domestic pottery on a traditional kick-wheel. Born into a family of potters, his childhood was spent at a pottery in rural North Yorkshire, surrounded by clay and inspired by the atmosphere of a busy production workshop. Following his studies at Norwich School of Art and Design, he established pottery studios in Yorkshire and then Norfolk, before settling in London.
Tom enjoys incorporating ‘wild’ clay into his clay bodies and slips and adding wood ash to glazes; in his finished pots he aims to retain as much evidence of the unique plastic qualities of clay as possible. Alongside his own practice, Tom has assisted artists with fabricating artworks in ceramic; specialising in wheel thrown and assembled sculptural ceramics. In Tom’s classes he shares his knowledge and passion for clay and whilst he’s a skilled technician, he encourages students to embrace spontaneity, imperfections, and the accidental in their work.
Tom teaches the Wednesday evening pottery course.