Whilst developing my own pottery business, sculpture and experimental work linked to the landscape and geology of Sutherland, over 60 students have studied and worked with me. Adult classes and projects for local school children are also a regular part of my work.
Lotte Glob
I am a Danish Ceramist – living and working on the North West coast of Scotland for the past 50 years. I work with a close, continuing and intense relationship with the landscape – an endless source of inspiration for my work.
I have been playing with clay since I was 8 years old. I left school at 14 and became an apprentice with Gutte Eriksen a Danish studio potter. Later I worked at an 8 generations traditional slipware pottery where I was taught by Knud Jensen in Denmark. I travel extensively, working in potteries in Ireland, Scotland and France – I have been exploring the landscape in Iceland, The Faeroe islands, Greenland, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Sweden and La Gomera. I have also visited New York, Barcelona, Stockholm, Helsinki and other cityscapes.
I have regular exhibitions of my work, which is represented, in public and private collections worldwide. I am now deeply involved at my 14 acres sculpture croft at the shores of Loch Eriboll. Here my new studio and house was relocated in 2004. If not working in my studio, I will be out sculpture crofting.
My creative process involves a close, continuing and intense relationship with the landscape and wilderness of the Scottish Highlands, a part of which is long hikes into the mountains, bringing back materials such as rocks and sediments. By working directly with these materials in a raw and unrefined state, combined with different clays, I create sculptural forms which are direct responses to the materials' physical nature. The sculptures are then fired to 1320 C - white heat, undergoing physical alterations similar to the landscape's volcanic origins.
It is essential for me that the firing creates the conditions for the materials to become active again, reliving this metamorphoses. High risks are often taken during this process of melting rocks, glass, clay and sediment. Despite my knowledge, developed through numerous experiments, the excitement of this process drives me on to take calculated risks as I push these materials to an extreme where they will be irrevocably transformed. Finished ceramics include large dishes, bowls, tiles, wall panels, fountains, floating stones, book works, sculptures - Studio work has led to installations and photo-works in the landscape.
