Sasha Wardell is an artist known for her pioneering approach in moving forward the traditional process of bone china production. She is recognised internationally for her work and her innovative approach, a focus based on taking an age-old craft to a higher level. Her carefully produced distinctive work embraces and reflects contemporary taste and lifestyle. Each piece is individually made using bespoke advanced industrial processes that Sasha has personally developed.
Sasha Wardell received her B.A. Hins in 3D Design (Ceramics) from the Bath Academy of Art in 1979. She also studied Industrial Ceramics at Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, Limoges, France, and received her M.A. in Ceramic Design at North Staffordshire Polytechnic, Stoke on Trent, in 1981. She was a Lecturer, Visiting Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at multiple institutions since the 1980’s, and organized many international workshops and masterclasses.
Sasha’s hallmark style, a distinctive combination of pure white slip cast bone china, treated with unique decorating techniques and finished in a carefully chosen palette of muted, subtle colours, has made her work highly sought after by private collectors, museums and contemporary art galleries worldwide.
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Featured work
Inspiration during lockdown, 2020
Sasha Wardell has been working in bone china since 1982. Her formal training in ceramics included both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and industrial training secondments to L’Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs, Limoges, France, and the Royal Doulton design studio, Stoke on Trent, UK.
An industrial approach to the traditional bone china manufacturing process has strongly influenced the way in which Sasha presently works, reflecting her fascination for methods and materials which present a challenge. It is for this reason that bone china, with all its idiosyncracies, has remained her favourite material.
“Bone china is a very “single-minded” clay which forces clarity and precision, whilst demanding perseverance from the maker. Possessing qualities of intense whiteness, translucency and strength, makes it very seductive material to work with,” says Wardell.
“Architectural detail and sections of structure combined with my evolving interest in illusions, provide the starting point for my pieces – and the inherent qualities of the clay do the rest. I find that the whiteness of bone china clay offers a pure blank canvas for the applications of colour, and its translucency enhances any varying degrees of luminosity.”
By adding a carefully selected colour palette to the striking white bone china, coupled with unique decorating techniques evolved through painstaking trial and error, Wardell has developed ranges of distinctive signature work that is sought after by personal collectors, museums and galleries worldwide.
