Nikki Seears

Nikki Seears

November 14th 2023 at 1:30pm - Nikki runs her small pottery business alongside running her families small campsite in North Wales in the UK. "I have been creating pottery since 2015 I've always been creative, enjoying drawing, painting, knitting, photography  etc , but nothing has really grabbed my whole attention until I tried pottery. I'd always wanted to try it but without a kiln or the knowledge to use one it always seemed so out of reach. Until I watched the first series of the great pottery throwdown, which if you haven't heard of it, is a programme in the UK where amateur  potters are set tasks every week to complete, one person being sent home every week until there is a winner. After that potters everywhere in the UK started offering classes, so along with my mum and a couple of friends we signed up to a nearby group class. I was hooked right away, and although we only learnt the basics of hand building in that class I was voracious for anything to do with pottery, and would spend hours online researching,  and watching how to throw videos on YouTube . Within a year I'd taken the plunge and bought myself a second hand kick wheel, and second hand kiln so I could practise at home as one morning a week just wasn't enough for me, and by the second year I'd also bought a second hand electric wheel, and converted our garage to work from. Amongst that early research I'd come across some underglaze transfers from Japan that I sent off for and loved, but the range was small and more traditional  than I was looking for. At some point I discovered elan pottery on Instagram, I absolutely  loved their transfers , and when they started selling their transfers a year or so later I was hooked right away, the vast array of fun designs were just what I'd been looking for. I don't exclusively use transfers on my pieces as I like to mix things up, but they are such a fun addition to my work, and I love how they can instantly  transform a piece. 

 

Watch the video on YouTube here.

List of tools: 

  • Leather hard pumpkin or pumpkin shaped mug of any size, these could be thrown on the wheel like I do (I throw a closed form, but it could also be thrown in two pieces), or made by hand as two pinch pots and then joined, then carved into shape.
  • Transfer sheets, I like to use any Halloween based ones, like the bats or ouija but any could be used
  • Sponge
  • Scissors 
  • Sharp knife for carving if you want to add a lid or to carve out any shapes to turn into a jack o lantern