Margaret Beale

After a working life spent teaching secondary school Art/Craft, Textiles and Ceramics, Margaret Beale has only recently become able to dedicate her time to the pursuit of her artistic passion – ceramics.

“With my recent foray into bone china I have found a medium which seems to encapsulate my love of simple forms, decoration and eye for detail. The discipline of jewellery making and textiles has been transferred to this ceramic process.

“Bone china is a notoriously difficult medium to work with, being extremely fragile at leather hard and dry stage, yet remarkable strong after firing. The clay is intensely white and can be exploited for its translucency.

“The forms are slip cast from moulds I design and make. After casting, the forms are variously treated to further thin the walls to enhance the translucency, which is revealed after the final firing.

“I carve, pierce or resist paint the object and then fire it to a soft bisque after which it is carefully sanded with wet and dry paper. A second higher temperature fifing is the undertaken and the object is further hand sanded in order to achieve a satin smooth finish.

“The true beauty of these forms I revealed when placed under or in front of a light source.”

Margaret also creates work using textiles, jewellery, glass, pastels, painting and drawing.