Kate Malone is an English ceramicist best known for her large, colourful pots inspired by nature and natural forms.
Facts About Kate Malone
- Kate Malone was born in London in 1959.
- Her father was a football journalist and a TV commentator for ITV.
- She first worked with clay at school when she was fourteen years old.
- Kate Malone went to Bristol Polytechnic, and she also studied at the Royal College of Art in London.
- She has two ceramic studios, one in Thanet (Kent), and one in London.
- Kate Malone creates with clay in different spheres – decorative arts, large-scale public projects or installations, and glaze research.
- From 2008 to 2010, Kate Malone completed a two-year residence in Barcelona. Before that, she lived in France’s Provence region.
- She has a daughter called Scarlet, and her husband is a builder.
Nature is at the root of everything I do. Either I am drawing directly from a natural form, which could be anything from a garlic bulb to a blackberry, or I am capturing something deeper and more essential – the force of nature, the freshness and sense of growth.
Kate Malone
- She usually works with T material clay, often used in industrial ceramics, but she has also worked with red clay.
- Her work is inspired by natural forms, including the shapes and patterns associated with different fruits and vegetables.
- Her work is part of numerous museum and gallery collections, including Manchester Art Gallery, Bristol City Museum, The Ashmolean Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
- Her work has appeared in exhibitions in cities all over the world, including Houston, Montreal, Charlotte, Belfast, Cardiff, Manchester, Leeds, London, and Bristol.
- In 2019, she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to ceramic art.
- She was one of the judges on the BBC’s The Great Pottery Throw Down TV show.
- Her work is sold through the Adrian Sassoon company, and pieces routinely sell in the five-figure price range.
I have been developing glazes for more than 25 years, and have devised more than 1000 recipes. It requires serious research and testing.
Kate Malone in 2010.
- Some of her large pots are more than 1 metre high, and they have to be fired in a specially designed kiln.
- She has collaborated with Russell Gibbs of Cheddar Gorge Pottery.
All my pots are coiled pots and are very simply made – all I really need to make them is a small turntable, a hack saw blade, a few wooden tools and my fingers. I often take quite a complex shape like a pineapple and then pare it down to simple geometric sections which need to be repeated over and over again.
Kate Malone in 2009
- She has more than ten employees who help her with her work.
- She loves dogs.
