ARTISANS are making their final preparations for a new showcase of contemporary ceramics being staged next month.

The inaugural North York Ceramics Fair is being held at The Hospitium in York’s Museum Gardens on the weekend of October 6 and 7. It will feature contemporary studio ceramics from the UK and beyond, selected by the Craft Potters Association.

There will be demonstrations and talks from the makers, who will show visitors the different ways the raw clay can be shaped.

Eric Moss, based in North Yorkshire, is one of the potters taking part. He creates ceramic sculpture whose forms suggest a blending of mechanics and marine or plant life.

Potter Eric Moss from Asenby near Thirsk working in his studio in readiness for the forthcoming York Ceramics Fair .

On Sunday, October 7, there will also be a talk by Roger Law, one of the creators of satirical show Spitting Image, on his journey from politics to pots. After the show ended in 1997, he said he “quietly deported myself to Australia to concentrate on what was left of my talent” and turned his energies to making ceramics.

He has since worked in both Australia and China’s ‘Porcelain City’, Jingdezhen.

Mr Law said: “I would like my pots to be as engaging and attractive as my caricatures were rude and ugly.”

York prepares for ceramic extravaganza