Glazed & Amazed Ceramics

Chloe Harford makes her unique range of Raku-fired ceramic animals from her workshop in Cornwall. Her most popular collection includes puffins, seals and penguins.

Chloe studied Design Crafts at Plymouth College of Art & Design and has been making animal sculpture for 12 years. She is inspired by the local wildlife surrounding her workshop, which is set in six acres of woodland on the banks of the River Tamar. With a long history of tin, copper and tungsten mining, the Tamar Valley is rich in minerals, some of which are used for glazes and colour in the creation of Chloe’s sculptures.

Raku pottery is rapidly fired until glowing hot (1000°c) and then placed in a container of sawdust, this instantly combusts which causes the glaze to crack at which point it is covered and left to cool. The smoke from the burning sawdust penetrates the cracks, producing the distinctive black lines.