Lowri Davies at Nantgarw Museum
28th November 2011
Lowri Davies’ Welsh heritage is a major source of inspiration.
Distinct bone china tableware designs of tea sets, vessels and vases are characterised
by slanted openings or a soft burred edge, signifying and heightening the fact that even
though appropriating factory production techniques, they are produced, decorated and
finished by hand.
All works consist of coloured internal moments, decorated with a combination of hand screen-printed
and digitally printed decals, further finished with gold and silver lustres. Vibrant illustrations of birds
(drawn from her own illustrations of Victorian taxidermy collections at her hometown of Aberystwyth),
ceramic collections (referencing works from 19th century Nantgarw and Swansea potteries) along
with established views of landscape, floral and fauna adorn her pieces.
Lowri's practice references typical china displays, household accumulations of souvenirs and
bric-a-brac that allude to a sense of place through a re-stimulation of iconography and
symbolism that has a deep relationship to her own roots.
Her latest making techniques in bone china is influenced from a period of study on the MA
Ceramic Design course at Staffordshire University, which has been further developed at her studio
based in Fireworks Clay Studios, Cardiff.
Recent accolades and exhibition highlights include being awarded the Gold Medal in Applied
Arts at the National Eisteddfod in Wales in 2009; participating in Wales’ programme at the
Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC,
