It isn’t often that giving birth to twin boys brings out a woman’s spontaneous side but, for the Edinburgh ceramicist Lara Scobie, having a family awakened a much more impulsive approach to her art.

“I decided to completely reinvent myself, which at the time some thought was a bad idea because I’d become established,” she says. “But your life changes so much when you have a family, you see the world in a new way.

“The work I did previously was very labour intensive — highly decorative, sculptural pieces. I wanted to make something that felt more immediate and I didn’t have as much time. Although my work has the look of being delicate and controlled, it’s quite spontaneous.”

Arriving at the finished article is still a complex process. Scobie’s ceramics — cups, bowls, plates — are hand-made using traditional techniques such as slab-building, coiling and press moulding.

When the forms are leather-hard, they are paddled and scraped to refine the final shape and finished surface. Layers of fine porcelain slip are applied — surface marks and drawn lines decorate the pieces. The work is fired in an electric kiln, hand polished with diamond pads and finished with wax polish. The end result is an exquisitely refined collection.

Scobie, 41, studied design at Camberwell College of Art , specialising in ceramics, before completing her postgraduate year at Edinburgh College of Art. She is now a teacher as well as a maker, passing on her skills to students at Duncan of Jordanstone College.

Her work is a considered balance between form and pattern — the simple shapes are made from soft slabs of clay, with delicate rims and edges. Time may be precious, but Scobie is still deeply committed to traditional craft practices.

“I’m still making ceramics completely by hand rather than throwing on a wheel or making a mould — it hasn’t come out of a machine. They have to have my mark,” she says. “To me, craft is something that has been produced by hand by makers that are working at the highest level of technique and process. It involves innovation with material and ideas. And above all else, craft is quality.”

www.craftscotland.org

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