Nicola Werner
Nicola Werner operates from a rural workshop in Somerset.She has a distinctive style employing patterns and colours that Nicola has refined over the years.
After studying Fine Art at the Central School of Art, Nicola then trained with Alan Caiger-Smith and his team at the renowned Aldermaston Pottery in Berkshire. In 1986 she set up her first pottery in Trottiscliffe, Kent.Year later she then moved the business to Somerset, initially with a studio in Milverton. The pottery has subsequently grown and today Nicola works out of a larger workshop in nearby.
All the pots are thrown on electric Alsager wheels in majolica clay from San Sepolcro, the heart of Italian tin–glazed pottery. When fully dry the pots are slowly bisque fired to 1060°C in one of two Cromartie electric kilns, powered by renewable energy and once bisque fired all pots are hand dipped in an opaque ivory white tin-glaze. It’s an Aldermaston recipe, tried and safety tested. After another day drying out, each pot is individually painted on a banding-wheel, using handmade sable brushes with pigments and oxides. The overnight glaze-firing needs careful watching in the final stages to reach 1060°C by gently soaking for several hours. The firing range is especially critical for painted pots.
Nicola uses combinations of eight colours across the wide range of ware, the harshness of pure copper and cobalt oxides tempered with a little ilmenite. The bright colours of Mediterranean Pottery are muted to suit the light and climate of the UK thus creating a subtle British majolica.