Gail Cooper

Gail Cooper hails from a ceramic lineage with her great grandfather, born in 1864, working as a potter from the age of 15 alongside his two brothers at Gray’s Pottery in Musselburgh, until it closed in 1928. He then travelled to Portobello to work at Gray’s Pottery there, which eventually became Buchan Potteries. He worked with white stoneware clay and when glassware became fashionable, he thought that was the end of stoneware for domestic use!

She has been interested in pottery herself since secondary school when she was introduced to it by her art tutor who encouraged her in perfecting throwing, sculpting and glazing techniques. Only recently returning to her love of clay, she took evening classes for 6 months to get reunited with the wheel and has spent the last couple of years building her studio and developing her signature style.

Working from her garden studio in Trevaunance Cove, Gail Cooper’s ceramics are thrown by hand on the potters wheel using local St Agnes Clay.

The ceramics she creates are minimal in design using her surroundings as inspiration. Nestled around the Cove, the Engine Houses and chimneys, with their straight lines tapering up, are a reminder of Cornwall’s mining heritage, along with eroded pebbles on the beach and the anemones exposed on the rocks at low tide.

Her glazes further reflect the natural colours around St Agnes, from the North Cornish sea, seaweeds, ferns, granite and slate.