Florian Gadsby

Florian Gadsby works from his studio in North London. Firing with a gas kiln he creates hand thrown stoneware, functional pottery, singular forms, and vessel collections. His work is characterised by simple forms, straight shapes, protruding lines, and sharp edges upon which his reduction fired feldspathic glazes can react, shrouding the pots in a layer of glaze, dotted with iron from numerous sources. Florian Gadsby studied at the DCCoI Ceramics Skills and Design Training course in Thomastown, Ireland. He spent three years apprenticed to pioneering potter Lisa Hammond MBE in Greenwich, London, learning to raw glaze and soda fire. A six-month apprenticeship followed in Mashiko, Japan, with Ken Matsuzaki, where he was trained to use a traditional kick wheel. ‘By My Hands: A Potter’s Apprenticeship’, published by Penguin Random House, is Florian’s first book. It tells the story of his artistic awakening in four parts, discovering clay, finding a voice, the apprenticeships he completed and pots that challenged him, all accompanied by photographs taken over the past decade of making, learning and firing pottery.