Abi Higgins’ parental home was in Wokingham and she still has strong ties with friends and family living in the area. She still feels like a local even though she now lives in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor. Abi is inspired by the landscapes that surround her every day. Her pottery studio is in a barn attached to the old Mill house that is now her home.
Abi uses a mix of porcelain and Raku clay to make her Raku pots. The Raku clay helps to combat the thermal shock of the firing when the pots are removed from the kiln at 1000 degrees centigrade and placed in a reduction bin with sawdust.
Abi throws her work on the wheel creating elegant bottles and round moon jars. The work is then decorated with copper wash that develops beautiful colours and flashes on the pot’s surface, or using the ‘Naked Raku’ technique when the resist slip and glaze cracks off the pot leaving a subtle black smoke mark on its burnished surface. Abi mixes her own glazes and washes, and has built her own Raku kiln that the pots are fired in. She finds the unpredictability of Raku creates a finished result that’s very exciting, for her as the maker and more importantly, the onlooker.
Abi started pottery about twenty years ago following a career as a dancer, then teacher of dance and exercise. She began with a weekly pottery course, progressing to a one day a week apprentice position in a professional pottery alongside craft and design courses. In the main, she has taught herself through experiment and practice.