Abi Higgins

Abi is inspired by the landscapes that surround her every day. Her studio is in a barn attached to the old Mill house where she lives on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon.

For her Raku work Abi works with a mix of porcelain and Raku clay. She throws her work on the wheel creating elegant bottles and round moon jars. The work is then decorated with copper wash that develops beautiful colours and flashes on the pot’s surface, or using the ‘Naked Raku’ technique when the resist slip and glaze cracks off the pot leaving a subtle black smoke mark on its burnished surface. Abi mixes her own glazes and washes, and has built her own Raku kiln that the pots are fired in. She finds the unpredictability of Raku creates a finished result that’s very exciting, for her as the maker and more importantly, the onlooker. 

​ Abi also likes to make domestic ware and brings the elements of the environments she loves in to the pots, so she uses a dark stoneware clay from Cornwall that is full of the different ores mined near the quarry the clay comes from. Abi uses the simple ancient, reduction fired, Chinese glazes that have stood the test of time and reflect the subtle colours of the moor, sea and sky. 

Abi continually develops her work exploring new approaches and ideas. She enjoys the challenges of both Raku and high fired domestic ware finding that the freer and idiosyncratic Raku method influences and informs her approach to domestic ware. 

Abi started pottery about twenty years ago following a career as a dancer, then teacher of dance and exercise. She began with a weekly pottery course, progressing to a one day a week apprentice position in a professional pottery alongside craft and design courses. In the main, she has taught herself through experiment and practice.