Laura Brownsteele
Laura has been working with clay on and off for over 15 years now. Having studied fine art at university finding ceramics in her final year the work she creates is more sculptural than functional. Walter Wylder Ceramics, named after her children, was born 6 years ago and has been Laura’s creative path to explore our local history, folklore and traditions through the medium of clay.
Architecture, her local and family history, folklore, stories and nature all influence her work, due to growing up in Cumbria and being a regular feature on the side of a Fell or along part of the wall Laura says the history of a place, what it might have seen in the past and what secrets it holds is what interests her so her pieces aim to provoke a viewer to think about a place or a moment in time in the same way. To immortalise a memory helping it live on and for others to become part of that experience.
Each of us has our own history, but we also have a joint one, and there is so much of it still to discover, from listening to folktales of selkies or Tizzie Whizzies or finding out what lies beneath a ruin the hope is that the viewer finds a piece that speaks to them, causes them to pause and want to find out more.
