Selected Ceramic Work

Ceramic sculpture, vessels, plates, bowls and experiments in surface, texture and glaze — work that sits outside both sculpture series and forms part of my wider ceramic practice.

Head Portrait Studies

Portrait heads and busts made outside the two sculpture series. Where a piece has been finished, the greenware stage sits beside it in the same row, so you can follow it from raw clay to final glaze.

A portrait head in greenware on the studio turntable, the hair roughly blocked in and swept back, the eyes, nose and mouth finely modelled

Before Head Portrait Study Stoneware, greenware

A glazed portrait bust, front view — dark modelled hair, softly coloured face, the shoulders draped in a cape of deep blue blossom pattern with a raised white cross and gold fan motifs

After — front Head Portrait Study Stoneware, with glazed transfer to the front torso, and back with Anchor Aqua, final glazed piece

The same glazed portrait bust, back view — a glossy turquoise blue glaze pooling and dripping down the back over pale stoneware, with gold fan motifs at the base

After — back Head Portrait Study Stoneware, with glazed transfer to the front torso, and back with Anchor Aqua, final glazed piece

A portrait bust in greenware on the studio turntable, seen from the side — a sculpted brain rising from the open top of the head, eyes softly closed, the shoulders and chest roughly worked with the marks of the modelling tools still visible

Before Head Portrait Study Stoneware, greenware

A glazed portrait bust, front view — a sculpted brain sitting where the hair would be, a downcast painted face with blushed cheeks and red-orange lips, a blue ceramic rose on the shoulder, and a black dress with white dotted floral glaze detail

After — front Head Portrait Study Stoneware, with glazed transfer at the back of head to shoulder area, final glazed piece

The same glazed portrait bust, back view — two dark blue koi-fish glaze transfers running down the back of the head to the upper back, a small hair bun with a red accent at the crown, and the black dress at the base

After — back Head Portrait Study Stoneware, with glazed transfer at the back of head to shoulder area, final glazed piece

A female bust in pale greenware, front view — short sculpted hair, a calm direct gaze, and both hands raised to the chest holding an anatomical heart with its open vessels

Before — greenware Underglaze Study Stoneware, greenware

The same bust from the side, the shoulder painted with cobalt blue flowers and green stems and leaves in liquid underglaze, the heart at the neck in pale blue and pink, before firing

Before — underglaze painted Underglaze Study Stoneware, greenware, underglaze painted

The same bust after glazing and firing — the cobalt blue flowers now deep and glossy, a mottled blue glaze across the shoulder and body, and the heart at the neck in bright blue and coral pink

After Underglaze Study Stoneware, glazed and fired

A portrait head in greenware, still wrapped in a clay bag, the eyes and mouth finely modelled and the hair swept back

Head Portrait Study Stoneware, greenware

Surface & Glaze Studies

Work made to find out what a glaze or a surface technique will actually do — how it breaks over a raised form, where it pools, and what happens when one layer is carved back into another.

A ceramic sculpture of a cupped hand on a square base, glazed in soft white and warm ochre where the glaze has broken over the raised forms of the fingers

Sculpting Hand & Surface Glaze Study Gen’ satin matte with clear glaze over

A small gas-fired form — deep oxblood red flooded across the surface, broken by pooled cream that has crawled and crazed into a shell-like pattern over the top

Surface & Glaze Study I Gas fired — Selsor copper overall, Malcolm Shino over the top

A square hand-built stoneware dish in speckled brown clay, a lace doily pattern carved back through a bright yellow slip across the well and rim

Surface & Glaze Study II Sgraffito — carving back through the slip layer

A ruffled flower-form ceramic bowl, the whole surface brushed in floating blue — deep cobalt pooling in the folds, pale cream running down the ridges and warm gold breaking along the frilled rim

Surface & Glaze Study III Floating Blue brushed over the whole surface

A ruffled, organically shaped dish brushed in Anchor Aqua — a pale turquoise blue glaze with darker blue pooling around the folded, wavy rim

Surface & Glaze Study IV Anchor Aqua brushed over the whole surface

Glaze recipe — Anchor Aqua

Soda Feldspar 38 · Silica 30 · Whiting 14 · Kaolin 6 · Zinc Oxide 12 · Copper Carbonate 0.6

The ingredients were mixed together to form a paste, then brushed over the entire surface of the bowl 3 times.

A square slab of pale unfired clay, a lace-like stencil pattern pressed directly into the damp surface — an embossed medallion at the centre and a border of scrolling foliage, with green underglaze brushed into the pattern across the upper half

Surface & Texture Study A stencil pattern pressed into fresh clay, then underglaze painted into the raised and recessed areas

Before & After

The same piece photographed twice — once as raw clay, and again once it is finished — placed side by side so you can see what the firing, glaze or paint has changed.

The Surrealist Project — Merged with Hand and Heart

A greenware sculpture on the studio bench — a standing female torso rising out of a fluted base, one large open hand reaching across the body, an open cylinder above the shoulder and a smaller hand at the chest — BeforeStoneware, greenware

The same hand-and-heart sculpture finished in a flat, intense ultramarine blue acrylic, shown from the side — AfterStoneware, finished in acrylic

Underglaze Study — Daffodil Yellow

A vessel built entirely from rows of hand-formed clay spheres, brushed all over with matte daffodil yellow underglaze before firing, on the studio wheel — BeforeDaffodil Yellow liquid underglaze on Raku clay, before firing

The same clay-sphere vessel after firing — the daffodil yellow underglaze now glossy and speckled with fine dark flecks — AfterDaffodil Yellow liquid underglaze on Raku clay, after firing

Head Portrait Study — Wide Brim and Lace

A portrait bust in greenware outdoors — a wide undulating clay brim tilted above the head, a calm modelled face, and one shoulder draped in a cloth pressed all over with lace texture — BeforeStoneware, greenware

The same bust after glazing and firing — the wide brim now a deep, glossy blue flecked with copper, the face in cream glaze, and the lace-textured shoulder picked out in blue against a soft blue-grey drape — AfterStoneware, glazed and fired

Glaze Test Tiles

A systematic record of what each glaze actually does, and what happens when one is laid over another. Each tile carries a single glaze across the whole face, with a second glaze taken over the lower half — so the plain treatment and the layered one can be read side by side on the same clay body, from the same firing. This is an ongoing series and more tiles will be added as they come out of the kiln.

A test tile glazed overall in Weathered Green — a dense grey-green pooling across the face with a brighter green rim where the glaze has gathered at the edge — 01Weathered Green

A test tile in Weathered Green, the lower half brighter and glossier where clear glaze has been laid over the top, breaking into a crawled turquoise — 02Weathered Green over the whole surface, then the bottom half with clear glaze

A test tile in Weathered Green, the top half left as the green alone and the bottom half gone olive and mottled where Gen’s Satin Matte has been applied over it — 03Weathered Green over the whole surface, then the bottom half with Gen’s Satin Matte

A test tile glazed overall in Gen’s Satin Matte — an even, soft cream surface with no gloss — 04Gen’s Satin Matte

A test tile in Gen’s Satin Matte, the lower half turned glassy and pearl-white where clear glaze has been laid over it — 05Gen’s Satin Matte over the whole surface, then the bottom half with clear glaze

A test tile glazed overall in Milky Gloss — a smooth, faintly blue-white surface with a soft sheen — 06Milky Gloss

A test tile in Clear Selsor — the glaze transparent, so the dark iron speckles in the clay body show through — 07Clear Selsor

A test tile in Chun Seafoam, a soft green ground with dots of Floating Blue that have bled and drifted into stems and pools — 08Chun Seafoam with Floating Blue dots

A test tile in Floating Blue — mottled blue, rust and brown, with pale Chun Seafoam dots sitting as soft rounds across it — 09Floating Blue with Chun Seafoam dots

A test tile in Gen’s Satin Matte, the lower half a soft seafoam green where Chun Seafoam has been applied over it — 10Gen’s Satin Matte over the whole surface, then the bottom half with Chun Seafoam

A test tile layered Bailey Red, then Selsor White, then clear glaze — fired to a dense mottled olive, copper and rust surface — 11Bailey Red over the whole surface, then Selsor White, then clear glazed over

A test tile glazed overall in Weathered Green, the top layered further with Chun Seafoam and Selsor White — a pale seafoam surface breaking into a dense mottled grey-green texture with fine dark speckling, on Raku clay — 12Weathered Green over the whole surface, then the top half with Chun Seafoam, then Selsor White — on Raku clay

A tall test tile glazed overall in Weathered Green, the top layered with Selsor White and clear glaze taken over both ends — a soft blue-green body deepening to dark marbled green at the top edge and warm gold at the foot, on Sculptural Clays (fine) — 13Weathered Green over the whole surface, then the top half with Selsor White, then clear glaze over both ends — on Sculptural Clays (fine)

Vessels, Plates & Bowls

Hand-built vessels and tableware from the studio, where texture is pressed into the clay itself before any glaze is chosen.

A round bowl finished in flat cobalt blue, the well pressed with lace and doily textures and the rim built from three rows of clay spheres

Bowl Stoneware, finished in acrylic

A shallow round plate in a glossy treacle-brown glaze with lilac pooling, a lace-textured centre showing through in bright yellow, and a rim built from a close ring of clay balls glazed yellow and brown

Making Plates Hump mould and lace on Raku clay — yellow slip, clay balls at the rim, Daffodil Yellow underglaze, completed through two firings

Four round plates laid out in a square — the top two in orange slip with lace and doily patterns carved back through to the pale clay, the lower left painted in orange and white stripes, and the lower right an embossed fish-scale relief with orange underglaze in the recesses

Four Plates — Slip, Sgraffito & Relief Orange slip carved back by sgraffito on the top two; painted orange and white underglaze and an embossed pattern on the raw surface below

Glazed ceramic plates, bowls and a textured vessel in orange and chartreuse, drying in the studio

Plates, Bowls & Vessels Stoneware, glazed

Studio table of glazed ceramic busts, plates, bowls and a sculpted hand

Studio Ceramics Stoneware, glazed

© 2026 Lee Anchor Sculpture. All rights reserved. I acknowledge the Gubbi Gubbi (Kabi Kabi) people as the traditional custodians of this land on which we walk, work, learn and gather. I honour and pay respects to their ancestors, elders and emerging generations.