Discovering pottery after retiring, Carol Parkes started handbuilding sculptural pieces inspired by a lifelong fascination for British wildlife, especially birds. She owes much to her father’s love of woodcarving, her grandmother’s willingness to let her make a mess and her mother’s “girls have a go” attitude; dabbling in carpentry. silversmithing and willow weaving.

A lucky break thanks to Showborough House Sculpture Exhibition in 2024 led to commissions for ceramic flowers, bird baths and grumpy toads. Subsequent exhibitions gave the opportunity to try new subjects from a range of waterfowl to giant conkers, acorns and fir cones.

Dissatisfaction with underglaze decoration led to the captivating world of glaze alchemy and Carol’s animal sculptures showcase an unusual use of glazes, oxides and stains. Finding the right clay body, building stable structures and choosing decoration methods offer endless opportunities for experimentation: a Guinea fowl in black stoneware clay, burnished to a shine and fully fired with satin matt highlights, or a proud pheasant fully glazed with layers capturing feather textures and stunning colours. Favourite decorating techniques also include slip trailing, hand made sprigs and carving.

Discovering the beautiful translucence of porcelain resulted in exciting experiments with coloured stains in Nerikomi and Neriage. Carol recently acquired a wheel and is exploring altering thrown forms: a thrown cylinder into a cuboid carved box; adding unfurling ferns to a thrown vase or additional features such as sculpted feet to vessels.

All Carol’s pieces under the Bearclay imprint are fully vitrified stoneware or porcelain, and suitable for indoors or outdoors. She particularly enjoys commissions designed to include references for an individual, such as a reclining badger as a retirement gift or a wedding bowl in ocean glazes for a diver.

Sources of inspiration include Ephraim Pottery, Nick Bibby, Hilary Audus, Maria Ten Kotenaar, Chris Campbell and Barbara Gittings. Carol also enjoys running handbuilding lessons and workshops from her Cotswold home.