Welcome to my studio

Hello I’m Lorna, a ceramicist and potter based in Leeds. I believe that pots are self-care. Each cup is a call to reflect, each bowl a moment of connection. 

The first cup of the day is a ritual. The whoosh of the kettle, the weight of the cup in your hands, the warmth rising to your face, as you look outward to the world beyond your kitchen.

Beautiful bowls are for sharing. For filling with food, inviting friends and family into the warmth of your table and saying: “Sit here, eat with me, stay a while.”

An empty vase on the mantle or windowsill seeks fresh flowers. It sends you out into the world to bring a handful of the season indoors.

hands working at the potters wheel
Lorna Gilbert Ceramics working in her pottery studio in Yorkshire, UK

Inspired by the wild mountains and oceans of the West Coast of Scotland, I make stoneware pots for people seeking space and calm. Pots to be held, used and enjoyed. Pots that are tactile and well proportioned, designed to fit perfectly in your hands.

I’m trained in fine art, experimental textiles, floristry and ceramics. For over twenty years, I have been potting from my garden studio in Yorkshire, moving with the rhythms and seasons of family life. Every unique piece starts life from a place of love, imbued with the joy and calm I find at my potter’s wheel.

Lorna Gilbert sitting at her wheel throwing a bowl in white stoneware clay

I explore the relationship between glazes and the way they mix and interact when fired. This tension and fusion mirrors the unseen boundaries between wilderness and craft. I carry this reciprocal relationship between nature and art into my creative process, minimising energy use, reusing materials, and making environmentally conscious choices wherever I can.

A handmade ceramic posy vase thrown on the potter wheel

Clay is earth and water, and my ceramics pull you full circle. The space and beauty of the horizon is the thread running through each handcrafted piece. Ocean blues and clear skies, swooping swifts and leaping hares, clean lines and earthy tones all invite you to pause a moment and connect with the nature around you — whether that’s wild, rolling moors and highlands or the yard outside your back door.

Thankyou for visiting my website, do take a look at where my ceramics are currently stocked. If you’d like to see what I’m up to in my studio do pop over and join my monthly newsletter.