Jane Adams
by Brenda Ross
It is not surprising that Jane Adams' ceramics feature animals. She was brought up in an animal loving family (a childhood photo shows the family cat with its own chair at the Christmas dinner table) and she owns an assortment of cats that have helped inspire her work. For most of her working life she followed other family footsteps too, by going into a profession; she worked as a chartered surveyor until the birth of her daughter in 1996, when she wanted to stay at home. Jane took up day classes in ceramics, later studying as a mature student at Loughborough University for two years and she is currently taking a masters degree in History of Ceramics at Staffordshire University.
But formal techniques such as throwing were not for her; she preferred hand-building and developed her own style, first making cats. When she realised there was a market for these, she began selling at local craft fairs in 1998, then built up confidence to go to more expensive fairs and has been on the craft fair circuit ever since. In early 2003 a gallery in Repton, Derbyshire, held an exhibition of her work, but wanted larger pieces, so she started making hares. That exhibition also led to another development: Jane and her partner, Philip Harris, decided to open their own gallery. Melbourne Contemporary Arts is in the visitor centre of Melbourne Hall, a short drive from their home in Shardlow, Derbyshire, in the outbuildings of the Hall along with other retail outlets for crafts, plants, etc.
In the gallery they sell Jane's ceramics, Philip's photography, and work by other craftspeople, most of whom Jane met when exhibiting at craft events.
Jane does not seek to produce accurate representations of animals, but to capture their spirit and character, with a touch of humour. 'I try to make serious pieces,' she says, 'but the humour creeps in and I end up making a hare with its legs in the air, or something like that.' When she first started selling her cats at craft fairs, she was upset when she heard some visitors calling them 'ugly'. But her style has proved its appeal for many people, and she just tells others that she 'doesn't do twee'.
Her ideas for new pieces can come at any time: 'When I am driving in the car or walking in town I will get an idea just from seeing an object, or I will think of something that a cat could be doing, or will get an idea for a series of pieces. I have to stop and do a drawing.' She also has books about cats and how they behave.
Among her range are tall, short and round abstract cats and hares, with large bodies and tiny heads, in attitudes that capture the animals' characteristics. There are tube cats ? with body and limbs made of continuous tubes ? which reflect feline movement. And there are particular breeds of cat, such as Devon Rex and Siamese, with a rough, textured finish. Colour accents are added with oxides.
As well as free-standing pieces, there are cat brooches, fridge magnets and plaques for smaller, impulse buys.
More recently Jane has developed another technique which she describes as 'between coiling and slabbing', to make tall tower-like shapes with an animal head on the top. Although they have no body shape, these somehow convey the expression and attitude of the animal. 'I start with a small slab of clay and build it up,' Jane explains, 'putting my hands inside to work up the shape. There is no smoothing of the clay; the making marks, the finger marks, all remain. In fact the quicker the piece is made the better it is, because if I work on it too much the surface will be smoothed out.'
The textured effect is also created by the clay she uses ? Craft Crank stoneware clay. 'It took me a long time to find the right clay,' says Jane. 'It is fired at a very high temperature, which means the clay draws back from the sand and grog that are mixed in with it. It is an easy clay to work with and I can use it for pieces three or four feet high with no cracking.'
Jane works from home, with three electric kilns working on a 24-hour firing cycle. Since she first went to the British Craft Trade Fair in 2002, orders from the show have doubled each year; half her annual turnover now results from bctf, with a further quarter from her gallery, and the rest from craft events. For the last two years she has also sold by mail order, but this is a small part of the business, mainly used by people who already know her work. Spring and Christmas are the significant times for selling and, in between, she has time to develop new pieces. 'I work to specific dates, for the shows,' she says. 'Each year I take 25% new work to bctf.'
Jane tries out new ideas at craft fairs, before offering them to the trade. 'Galleries start off with the standard range, then move on to my one-off pieces,' she says. 'These are more fantasy pieces and I try out the ideas at public events first. If I hear people muttering that they are weird,
I know I have gone too far.' She also goes to the Supreme Cat Show and National Cat Club Championship Show, where her cats sell so well that she can take as much in a day as she normally does in a month at her gallery.
As well as the cats and hares, Jane has added a few farm animals, such as chickens and sheep, but recently has also begun to try a new style, completely opposite to her rough-textured pieces. 'It's as if you take one technique as far as you can, than try another,' she says.
'I have been deliberately doing work with a smooth finish.' These pieces have included her first dogs, and some pieces feature crackle glaze, created by using an earthenware glaze on a stoneware body, but with large crackles instead of small ones ? difficult to achieve. She wants to work more with this technique, as well as create more tall, coiled pieces, and no doubt the menagerie will continue to grow.
Jane Adams
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