Pottery Team
Birgit Pohl
Birgit makes wheel-thrown functional and decorative porcelain pots from her studio in Forest Hill. Her pieces are hand-decorated in her signature style, conveying a love for early to mid-20th century art and design.
She studied at Clay College, Stoke-on-Trent, where she discovered her love for porcelain. In 2023, Birgit became a Selected Member of the Craft Potters Association and her work has been exhibited in various locations including Celebrating Ceramics Oxford, Potfest Compton Verney, Art in Clay Farnham and Handmade Chelsea.
Birgit is experienced in teaching wheel-throwing courses and specialised workshops for all levels. She particularly enjoys helping students develop their own language in ceramics.
Joanna Szwej-Hawkin
Joanna works from her studio in Nunhead, making decorative and functional pieces in earthenware or stoneware clay. She makes limited editions and one-off pieces.
Joanna won Best Hand-built Exhibit at the London Potters Members Exhibition in 2022 and Judges Choice at the Exhibition in 2023.
As an experienced tutor in throwing on the wheel and hand-building, she provides hands-on demonstrations, guidance and feedback to students of all levels. She assists students in developing personal projects and facilitates a supportive environment to encourage their expression through ceramic art.
Schneider
Her work covers a full palette of ceramic techniques, from thrown to hand-build, slip-cast and printed pieces in porcelain, stoneware and earthenware clays.
She has been teaching ceramics classes for a number of years and enjoys facilitating students’ creativity and progress, embracing the interaction with individuals from all walks of life through the medium of clay.
Schneider studied Performance Art / Experimental Film at Berlin Art College, but turned potter afterwards, studying Ceramics at City & Guilds in London.
Kyriaki Stratoudaki
Kyra creates small batch, functional ceramics in her studio in Glyfada, Greece. Located in London for the last ten years, she mostly throws on a potter's wheel and occasionally makes decorative porcelain pots and jewellery. Having lived abroad for many years, her yearning for the Greek sea, waves and sky are often depicted in the blues and whites she uses to decorate and glaze her pieces.
Kyra’s work is on display and for sale at galleries in London, Athens and Paros, Greece.
She teaches wheel-throwing, mostly functional ware, from beginners to masterclass level at various studios across London.
Yasmin Hamouda
Yasmin Hamouda is a designer/maker based in South East London. Originally from Northern Ireland, Yasmin worked as a chef and across many other roles in hospitality for almost 20 years, before bringing her food focused perspective to her ceramic practice. Since graduating from the Ceramic Design course at Central Saint Martins in Kings Cross, Yasmin has worked with numerous chefs and restaurants to design and make bespoke tableware.
Teaching has been a significant part of her practice from very early on, covering a range of classes from one off tasters to more specialist courses on wheel thrown pottery. Yasmin teaches across London regularly and appreciates the value in sharing her love and knowledge for clay.
Hillary Ah-hing
Hillary is a Mauritian ceramic artist with a background in Fine Art and Graphic Design.
Her work draws inspiration from her love of vibrant colour and bold pattern, which she reinterprets through clay in a contemporary way. Specialising in wheel-thrown ceramics, Hillary’s pieces celebrate self-care and everyday rituals.
Hillary is experienced in teaching group sessions and one-to-one classes in both wheel-throwing and hand-building, and enjoys helping students discover the mindfulness and creativity that clay offers.
Photo by Natalie Martinez
Nicholas Bennett
Nicholas is a technician deeply invested in workshop culture and material investigation. After having studied design at Goldsmiths, he now works on build projects at adventure playgrounds, guest tutors in design at Goldsmiths and UAL, and is currently trying his hand at architectural joinery at the Building Crafts College.
Working closely with the team and ‘Peter the pug mill’, he maintains the Bell House pottery studio and aims to provide beautiful clay for our students.
Sian Kelly
Sian Kelly is an English/Australian multi-disciplinary artist working between installation, sculpture, performance and drawing. A core medium in their practice, Sian uses ceramics to hand-build abstract sculptural forms based on the human figure. They also produce a range of functional ceramic wares using hand-building and slip-casting techniques, under the project name Nil Studio. Sian holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (HONS) from UNSW Art and Design.
Outside of their own practice, Sian has extensive experience in ceramics, having previously worked as a production potter, dispatcher and operations all-rounder at Mud Australia and having taught hand-building across studios from Sydney to London.