School of Art

Contact Details

School of Art
Aberystwyth University
Buarth Mawr
Aberystwyth
Ceredigion
SY23 1NG

Tel: +44 (0)1970 622460

Fax: +44 (0)1970 622461

Email: artschool@aber.ac.uk


Display artist/maker:

Janet Hamer

Born: 1932, UK, England, Lancashire   Died: 2014

Ceramicist. She trained at Lancashire Art School and then set up a pottery studio with her husband, potter and teacher, Frank Hamer. Originally they made tableware in an earthenware body with slip and lustre decoration. After they moved to Gwent in South Wales in 1960 she developed an independent specialisation in ceramic bird forms in oxidised stoneware. This has allowed her greater freedom and scope to explore the rich possibilities of ceramic materials. Her particular interest lies with water birds: kingfishers, ducks, herons, swans, moorhens and grebes. The birds are conceived first in the form of a drawing, made from life. Then she forms hollow wheel-thrown shapes which are modeled, pinched and pulled. Glazes are used to create effects which help to capture the essence of the bird. The pieces are fired to stoneware temperatures in a propane gas kiln. Along with her husband, Frank, she wrote one of the important texts for studio potters, ‘The Potter’s Dictionary of Materials and Techniques’ for A & C Black, first published in 1975. It ran to many editions and has recently been revised and updated. Frank and Janet Hamer were awarded a lifetime achievement award at the International Ceramics Festival, Aberystwyth in 2005

Objects in the collections associated with this artist/maker

'Mandarin Duck' C1053 Ceramics




 
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