Louise Gridley - Sugi Ceramics
Hi, I'm Lou!
​​I am a Suffolk-based visual artist and educator whose practice spans ceramics and socially engaged creative projects. Alongside teaching Visual Arts and leading ceramics and life‑drawing workshops, I develop initiatives that bring communities together through making, storytelling, and shared experience. My work has been supported by Arts Council England, including a legacy public mural in Bury St Edmunds celebrating local heritage and culture.​​​
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I work under the brand Sugi Ceramics. The name Sugi derives from the humble Japanese art form of Kintsugi; which, as a philosophy, celebrates repair, imperfection and healing.
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My ceramic practice brings together hand‑built forms with painterly and graphic surfaces, shaped by my Fine Art background in Painting and Printmaking. Clay offers me both a pliable sculptural medium and a blank canvas - a space where image and form can meet, challenge and play.
I exhibit regularly with Anglian Potters.
Recent work
Through slip decoration I layer colour, shape and pattern to create playful surfaces. These visual languages allow me to explore recurring themes of identity, tribe, and belonging reflecting my interest in how we define ourselves and connect with others.
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Travel and cultural exchange have greatly influenced my work - in particular, a special trip to Tanzania where I took a group of A level students to teach Art & Design in a rural school.
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Sketchbooks remain central to my working process - I record observations and ideas that translate into clay. Whilst I relish the design process I equally embrace the chance encounters presented by alternative firing techniques.
View my work
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My Studio
Unit 4C, Station Road Industrial Estate, Elmswell, Suffolk, IP30 9HR
Contact
07523 354478