Blue Fox Ceramics

handmade decorative ceramics for your home. One off wheel thrown ceramics, handpainted in deep vibrant colours.

Hello. My name is Ruth Fox (the fox bit in Blue Fox Ceramics). Ive been passionate about art and design my whole life. When I was a child I was always drawing or making something. When I got older I took all the art classes at school I could ( apart from Ceramics - wasnt allowed to). Not surprisingly I went to Art college and then did 3 art A levels Art, Sculpture and Printmaking, eventually going to The School of Jewellery in Birminghams celebrated Jewellery Quarter.

At 21 Iwas between courses, and took some classes at my local college. It was there I first learnt to throw.
Although working in different areas, I always come back to clay. I think Clay is a fascinating medium to work in. You can mould it, carve it, cast it, throw it, pinch it, coil it, roll it. Then if it doesn’t work you can chuck it in bucket of water and recycle it into a new piece. Once it’s fired it becomes vitreous, tough, microwave, oven proof and even frost proof due, to the chemical changes that occur in the kiln at 1200c.
I’m fascinated by certain colours. Blue being my main one. (The blue bit in blue fox Ceramics) Whenever I go plant shopping I will invariablebuy blu plants.
The majority of my work is made using stoneware clay sourced from the potteries in Stoke on Trent, wheel thrown and decorated by hand using a glazing technique called layering. This involves applying multiple glazes to each piece by hand. Sometimes six or seven layers are used to achieve the subtle and beautiful colour combinations. This makes every piece unique as the firing results vary, as does the way the glaze is applied.
The majority of my work is single fired, which is energy saving, as pieces only need one firing instead of the two that most potters use. It requires patience and careful handling as pots known as greenware (dried out clay) are extremely fragile, and break easily.
I also create coil pots which are then altered or carved, these tend to be larger pieces, always one offs and totally unique.