Hello!

I am a potter based on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, a beautiful area with gently rolling farmland, and the most magnificent skies. My collection of ceramics is wheel-thrown and decorated with coloured slips (liquid clay) in a variety of abstract designs.

My Dad is, and my grandfather was, a very keen vegetable grower, and during my degree I took inspiration for my surface designs from their treasured gardening tools. I still love mark-making, but now my patterns evolve in a more intuitive way, by layering colour onto the clay’s surface, in a constant exploration of lines and circles.

When I’m not potting, I can usually be found out for a walk, watching a B&W film, cooking or eating! I love visiting a good book shop and exhibition, and love discovering new music and podcasts. Matisse is one of my favourite artists, and the work of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant are a huge source of inspiration to me.

Kate Welton throws a pot on her wheel in the studio at designermakers21 in Diss, Norfolk

Education

1st Class BA (Hons) Design Crafts, De Montfort University, Leicester, 2012-2015

Awards

Potclays Graduate Award 2015

Selected Exhibitions and Shows

‘Nurture’, an Exhibition with Design Nation East Anglia, designermakers21, July 2024

POTFEST at the Minories, Colchester, February 2024

FOLK EAST Art Arcade with designermakers21, Glemham Hall, Suffolk, August 2023

Thrive Collective ‘Pop-Up’, Helmingham Hall, May-September 2023

Crafts at Blackthorpe Barn, Rougham nr Bury St Edmunds, December 2022

FOLK EAST Art Arcade with designermakers21, Glemham Hall, Suffolk, August 2022

Crafts at Blackthorpe Barn, Rougham nr Bury St Edmunds, 27th-28th November 2021

Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair - ONLINE, 17th-18th July 2021

‘Inspired by 30x30’, an exhibition with designermakers21 and friends, The Corn Hall, Diss, 3rd July - 7th August 2021

CRAFT at Top Drawer, Olympia, London, January 2020

British Crafts at Blackthorpe Barn, Rougham, Suffolk, 10.11.19-11.11.19

Artist Showcase, Designer Makers 21, Diss, Norfolk, 01.11.19-31.01.20

Pattern and Sequence Exhibition, National Centre for Craft and Design, Sleaford, 19.10.19-05.01.20

Summer Exhibition, Haymakers Gallery, Hay-on-Wye, 14.07.19-15.09.19

Guest Artist, Handmade Shop and Gallery, Bury St Edmunds, 01.06.19-30.06.19

British Crafts at Blackthorpe Barn, Rougham, Suffolk, December 2018

Handmade at Kew, Kew Gardens 04.10.18-07.10.18

Taste Exhibition, The Byre Gallery, Millbrook, Cornwall,  24.03.18-03.06.18

MAKE '17, Contemporary Crafts for Christmas, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey 18.11.17 – 07.01.18

Design Nation EMERGE Exhibition, Heart Gallery, Hebden Bridge, 30.07.17-08.10.17