Biography
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Isatu first encountered throwing at the wheel under the instruction of master potter Andrew Crouch. Between a degree-switch from Architecture to Sustainable Design she went to his studio ‘just to make something from start to finish’. On day one she became hooked on beauty of the material, the processes and the sculptural possibilities of this ancient art and hasn’t looked back since.
Working mainly on the potter’s wheel, Isatu’s inspirations draw heavily on pre-industrial craft from around the world. Her 4 year apprenticeship and subsequent employment with Andrew Crouch at The Marches Pottery focused on making oil-fired, reduction stoneware that took most notable influence from Eastern and Medieval European ceramics. Her own key interests that have been added to this mix are traditional West African and Minoan ceramics.
Her interest and experience in all of these themes have been informing her work as she endlessly develops her skills as a potter, gradually forging a personal aesthetic that seeks to offer a rich but gentle addition to both intimate, personal spaces and places of shared experience. She currently works with both stoneware and earthenware clay bodies, firing in electric, gas and wood fired kilns.
Her dedication to the traditions of production pottery are demonstrated in her tableware collection that “grounds [her] practice in a love for making pots for daily human interaction”, and her more expansive interests and inspirations are put forward in work that can stand alone as expressions of an ongoing conversation on form, light, colour, tone and surface.
“I am interested in finding visual balance and elegance in the tension between strength and relaxation. I aim to make pots that are quiet but have poise, substance and presence.”
Awards and Funding
Churchill Scholarship Trust 2019 (travel deferred to 2024): Funded to undertake research into West African pottery techniques and history
Adopt a Potter 2015: Funding towards further apprenticeship with Andrew Crouch, potter.
Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust / Heritage Crafts foundation 2014: funding towards apprenticeship with Andrew Crouch, potter.
2011 Ferdynand Zweig Scholarship Falmouth University: funded travel to Athens and Crete to research Minoan ceramics
Isatu first encountered throwing at the wheel under the instruction of master potter Andrew Crouch. Between a degree-switch from Architecture to Sustainable Design she went to his studio ‘just to make something from start to finish’. On day one she became hooked on beauty of the material, the processes and the sculptural possibilities of this ancient art and hasn’t looked back since.
Working mainly on the potter’s wheel, Isatu’s inspirations draw heavily on pre-industrial craft from around the world. Her 4 year apprenticeship and subsequent employment with Andrew Crouch at The Marches Pottery focused on making oil-fired, reduction stoneware that took most notable influence from Eastern and Medieval European ceramics. Her own key interests that have been added to this mix are traditional West African and Minoan ceramics.
Her interest and experience in all of these themes have been informing her work as she endlessly develops her skills as a potter, gradually forging a personal aesthetic that seeks to offer a rich but gentle addition to both intimate, personal spaces and places of shared experience. She currently works with both stoneware and earthenware clay bodies, firing in electric, gas and wood fired kilns.
Her dedication to the traditions of production pottery are demonstrated in her tableware collection that “grounds [her] practice in a love for making pots for daily human interaction”, and her more expansive interests and inspirations are put forward in work that can stand alone as expressions of an ongoing conversation on form, light, colour, tone and surface.
“I am interested in finding visual balance and elegance in the tension between strength and relaxation. I aim to make pots that are quiet but have poise, substance and presence.”
Awards and Funding
Churchill Scholarship Trust 2019 (travel deferred to 2024): Funded to undertake research into West African pottery techniques and history
Adopt a Potter 2015: Funding towards further apprenticeship with Andrew Crouch, potter.
Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust / Heritage Crafts foundation 2014: funding towards apprenticeship with Andrew Crouch, potter.
2011 Ferdynand Zweig Scholarship Falmouth University: funded travel to Athens and Crete to research Minoan ceramics
