Blackburn mum's pottery thats Miles better

Blackburn mum's pottery thats Miles better

11:00am Monday 3rd February 2014 in News By Diane Cooke, Feature Writer

JULIE Miles vowed when she became a ceramicist that she would make art her full-time career.

With my family moving to Lancashire from the Potteries when I was 14 it makes me a bit of a ceramic clich as I come from a long line of pottery workers from brick makers to tile painters, she says.

So I suppose its in the blood, but when I went to art college I wanted to be an embroiderer. I turned to clay as it was a material I could use to create outdoor work and also play with fire.

And Julie, 43, of c has not stopped working since. Based at Higherford Mill, in Barrowford, she works relentlessly for a mixed economy creating everything from stunning ceramic vases and jewellery through to huge brick landscape projects whilst working in local schools as an artist in residence.

Julie believes people are attracted to her work because they want a unique piece of art in their home. Its satisfying to know the background of an artist and the history behind a piece, she says.

Inspired by landscape and nature, she incorporates individual leaves and flowers into her clay, picked from her own and other people's gardens. Her pieces delicate vases, tealight holders, vessels and decorative flowers are available in galleries around the country, and she accepts one-off commissions via her website.

Or people bring things to me they want their garden captured in a piece. She even preserves wedding bouquets in porcelain.

I'll make anything as long as it's white, she jokes.

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Blackburn mum's pottery thats Miles better