For ceramicist Rachel Kay, the everyday objects we surround ourselves with, particularly the ones we reach for morning after morning, deserve the utmost intention.
Working exclusively in stoneware, Rachel uses a slow, hand-shaped process that celebrates the raw, unglazed texture of earth against skin. Her distinct visual language has caught the eyes of interior designers and culinary icons alike, leading to bespoke collaborations with the likes of the Arkle restaurant at The Chester Grosvenor.
For this week’s Sunday Series, Kay shares insight into her editing process, the ergonomics of tableware, and the vital role that visual energy plays in refueling her creative rhythm.
How did your background in Fine Art lead you into the world of ceramics?
I trained in Fine Art as a sculptor, and a lot of my early work explored ideas around home and our relationship with everyday objects. I’m still interested in those same ideas, but over time they naturally shifted into something more functional. I became increasingly interested in the objects we physically live with every day and the attachments we form to them. Ceramics gave me a way of exploring those ideas, thinking about why we always reach for the same cup, what makes an object feel worth holding, and how everyday objects become part of our routines and lives.
Your work often focuses on how a piece feels in someone’s hands. How do you
balance the ergonomics of a functional object with the raw aesthetic of exposed
Stoneware?
Function has to take priority because if a piece can’t safely and successfully work as tableware, then the design has failed regardless of how it looks. The aesthetic qualities of the work are equally important to me but they have to exist within the functional requirements of the object. Working with exposed stoneware adds another layer to that balance because I only want raw clay in the areas where food and drink don’t come into contact with the surface
What is it about stoneware specifically that aligns with your creative vision, and
how do you decide which areas of a piece to glaze versus leaving as raw clay?
I only work in stoneware, I love the colour, texture, and physical quality of exposed clay. Unlike a fully glazed object, exposed stoneware allows you to experience the clay itself, not just the glaze sitting on top of it. There’s something very powerful about clay as a material, so allowing it to remain visible felt like the right direction for my work. The placement of glaze is always led by function, so I leave as much clay exposed as possible without compromising the practicality of the piece.
In a world of mass production, your process is intentionally slow. How do you
protect your creative rhythm when demand for your work increases?
The pace of my work is really determined by the process itself. Because everything is
hand-shaped there's a physical rhythm to the making that I can't really force or rush. Clay has a memory, and the more it's overworked or pushed too quickly, the more likely it is to distort during drying and firing. I know how much height and width I can shape from a particular weight of clay, and because I’m working from one piece rather than adding clay as I go, about a third of the way through making I can feel whether the piece is going to work.
I know how much work I can realistically make within a certain time, and I’m not willing to push beyond that because it compromises the quality of the pieces and my enjoyment of making. The pieces feel personal to me because every form comes directly from my hands, so increasing production for the sake of quantity has never really interested me. I think people who choose handmade work understand the time it takes, and the waiting becomes part of the consideration and value of the object.
Looking back at your early work, how has your visual language evolved? Are you
moving toward more minimal forms, or are you becoming more experimental with
Texture?
My early work was much broader, with more variation in making methods and glazing. I was working across both wheel-thrown and hand-shaped pieces, and the collection didn’t feel as focused as it does now. Over time, especially through seeing my work together in shops, I began to understand which pieces felt strongest and which ones were distracting from the collection as a whole.
The main shift was less about changing everything and more about editing. I could see that people were consistently drawn to the hand-shaped work and exposed clay, so my visual language gradually became more focused around those elements. I’m now beginning to explore sculptural pieces for the home using heavily textured clay, where the surface can be pushed further than it can be in tableware.
You created bespoke hand-shaped bowls for the Arkle restaurant at The Chester
Grosvenor. Can you tell us more about this process? What was your favourite
Part?
Executive Chef, Elliot Hill, first came across my work through oH Design, a concept store in Chester that stocked my ceramics. He already knew he wanted to work with exposed clay so when we met he looked through the different bowls I was making and selected a hand-shaped bowl for the Arkle restaurant's tasting menu. The process itself was actually very straightforward; he saw my work and understood how my bowls could become part of the dining experience he creates.
I made the order in small batches because with hand-shaped work, that repetition helps my hands understand the form. There are always small differences between each bowl, so I over-made slightly to make sure I could select the strongest pieces.
Seeing my bowls used at the Arkle felt completely different as the food elevated the bowl in a way I’d never experienced before. Elliot would send me photographs as he was developing the dishes, and seeing how carefully he designed the food around the bowls was probably my favourite part of the whole experience. His artistry with food is exceptional.
What was the most challenging part of designing for a high-end culinary
environment where the food is the star?
Working with Elliot made me realise that my bowls are experienced very differently depending on where they are used. In someone’s home the bowl itself can become much more central, whereas within the Arkle the same bowl is experienced in a completely different way. It becomes part of the presentation of the dish where the food is the focus, it made me think about restraint in a completely different way.
Tell us about the Organics Collection, what inspired the themes of tactility and
Connection?
I wanted to create the kind of collection I would choose to use in my own home. The themes of tactility and connection came from my own relationship with the objects I use. The collection began with cups because I’ve always been particular about the cups I use, even before I made ceramics. The weight, the balance, the rim, and how a cup feels to hold all matter to me. That same thinking gradually carried through into the rest of the collection.
The Organics Collection is made up of everyday tableware, all centred around hand-shaped forms and exposed clay. I wanted the pieces to feel handmade, with slight irregularities, but more than anything I wanted the exposed clay to bring the focus back to the material itself, rather than hiding it completely under glaze. For me, that physical connection to the clay is at the heart of the collection.
Beyond sight and touch, you often talk about the grounding experience of your
ceramics. Do you view your pottery as a form of mindfulness for the end-user?
Mindfulness isn’t something I consciously think about when I’m making, but I do think people form strong attachments to the objects they use every day, especially cups and mugs. I love hearing the different stories people have about how my work has found its place in their routine. I’ve had people come back a year later and tell me they still reach for one of my mugs every morning. I think there’s something about the tactile nature of clay, the warmth of the cup and the weight of it in your hands that naturally slows people down for a moment, even if they’re not consciously thinking about it.
Where do you go when you need to recharge your creative batteries? Is there a
specific landscape or archive that inspires you?
When I need to recharge creatively, I go to London. I used to live there, so I go back to my favourite galleries, restaurants and interior shops, places I always find inspiring. I think I need that contrast from being in the studio on my own to being somewhere with so much visual energy. I don’t usually come home with one clear idea, it’s more that I’ve absorbed the things I’ve seen and the experiences I’ve had. These things get sketched or photographed, and they gradually feed back into my ceramics.
What’s next? Are there new materials or scales you’re itching to explore?
I’m currently developing a small collection of interior pieces with interior designer Saskia Taitt, following on from our coffee cup collection we designed together. Working with Saskia has naturally opened up a more interior-focused way of thinking. I’m still working with the same ideas of exposed clay and hand-shaped forms but I’m starting to
explore heavier textures, different clay bodies and larger pieces that sit somewhere between functional and decorative.
As Kay expands her visual vocabulary into larger-scale interior pieces and heavily textured clays, her foundational philosophy remains beautifully uncompromised: function led by form, and form led by touch.
By letting the clay speak for itself, she creates a rare sense of connection between maker, material, and end-user. Whether her work is elevating a fine dining experience or quietly holding a morning brew, Rachel’s deliberate pace proves that good design is always worth the wait.
