About
Pottery Pets by Alice Johnson
Alice Johnson is a British ceramicist based in London. Her aim is
to evoke a sense of joy, humour and nostalgia is central to her work. She does
this through a playful use of colour, shape and form; aiming to tell a story or
simply put a smile on people’s faces through her work.
Alice runs Pottery Pets where she makes bespoke customised
sculptures of people’s pets. A way to capture their
personalities in a characterful way through clay as a way for the pet to be
captured in ceramic forever.
The main aim is to create something that will be treasured forever,
to be passed down through the generations; a way to tell stories and evoke memories “this was
Grandma’s cat…”
How it started
The first pets I made were back in 2015 at a pottery course of my two beloved spaniels. I then made a few pets for friends and then it snowballed from there. I feel very lucky that this is what I get to as a job, and am so grateful to all of those who have faith in my pet pottering abilities, they really all are a joy to make.
The Pet Making Process
Each pet is completely bespoke, lovingly handmade and painted. They
are made from earthenware clay where I constantly look at the photo of the pet
as I make. The clay must be bone dry and then goes into the kiln for its first
firing which turns the clay into ceramic. I then hand paint the features with
underglaze paints and then they get dunked in transparent glaze and have a
second firing, which makes them nice and shiny and the colours more zingy.
Please go to Order Information for further details.
Alice painting pets in her Hoxton studio
Photography by Sophie Davidson
Photography by Sophie Davidson
Portrait of Alice at home
Photography by Sophie Davidson
Photography by Sophie Davidson
Work in progress
All in the detail - painting eyes on a pottery pet
Photography by Sophie Davidson
Photography by Sophie Davidson