Contemporary Art, Furniture & Craft Gallery · Licensed Café
YO THOM’s most recent studio pottery introduces exciting new scale to her forms and new designs. In addition to the very popular small and tender domestic pots that have made her name, she has been working on much larger pieces with warmer colours which still retain her gentle aesthetic. The results are gorgeous platters, vases and Tsubos, decorated with new and well developed sgraffito designs. Her work draws on both Japanese and British pottery traditions and practices.
Yo Thom’s pieces interpret her beautiful rural surroundings in a style inspired by patchwork-style recycled Japanese folk textiles called ‘Boro’. Yo works in stoneware which is thrown, slabbed, coiled and pinched. Her distinctive soft-looking finishes are created using sgraffito techniques on an indigo slip partially covered with white glaze. Her pieces are functional and made to enhance food culture.
YO THOM was born in Tokyo. She came to England in 1996 to study 3D design at the Kent Institute of Art and Design. After her introductory year, she chose ceramics and completed an MA in Ceramics in 2000. Whilst studying at the college, she also worked for Lisa Hammond MBE at Maze Hill Pottery in London and continued her apprenticeship for a further two years after graduation.
Yo Thom set up her first studio in Deptford, London, in 2004 producing stoneware and porcelain tableware and some wood-fired pieces. She moved to Shaftesbury, Dorset, in 2009 and has since had a family. She is an elected member of the Craft Potters Association and has exhibited widely throughout the UK. It is a pleasure to stock Yo Thom’s work here at Sladers Yard.
