Ann Hebden
Ann Hebden is a ceramicist who has lived and worked in East Anglia, Norfolk, then Essex, since 1990. For many years she focussed on making frost proof hand built garden ceramics and still makes bird baths and ammonites to order. Since 2013 she now produces hand thrown vessels working in stoneware and porcelain both functional - plates, platters, flower vases, serving bowls - and fanciful. During Covid she started experimenting with Raku firing and now makes burnished stoneware decorated with horse hair and feathers and also indulges in copper fuming.
She has exhibited, through Anglian Potters, at the Ferini Gallery, Pakefield for four years, RHS Hyde Hall, and across Essex as part of ClayArt Quintessentially - a group of five female Essex potters dedicated to promoting ceramics and exhibiting annually in different parts of the county. Her work is in private collections in Los Angeles and New York.
Member of Anglian Potters, Colchester Art Society, Craft Potters Association, ClayArt Quintessentially.
Artist Statement
I started working with ceramics over 30 years ago when I attended an evening course and fell in love with clay in all its forms. The course did not include working on a wheel so for 20 years I concentrated on creating hand-built structures that are frost-proof and can survive outdoors - ammonites, shells, fish fountains, bird baths and in one instance a dinosaur.
A move to the Essex coast prompted me to enroll on further ceramic courses and introduced me to the beauty of porcelain and producing work thrown on a wheel. I now work in stoneware and porcelain, mainly hand thrown, with glazes inspired by the coastline at Harwich. Since 2022 I have been producing Raku fired vessels and love the unpredictable Raku results.