James Hake

James Hake has an abstract and consolidating eye which gives a new economy to the Anglo-Oriental aesthetic. He has contrived new types of form, with glazing that is both dipped and broadly poured across surfaces. Given Hake’s often impressive sense of scale – look at some of his large chargers for example – the effect is one of power and expansiveness. Hake is interested in essential shapes, historically tested, but ones to which he gives a new energy in both thrown and slab-built work, enriched by dark tenmokus, shinos, copper reds and various ashes.

Hake is based in Lancashire, and like other potters who have been closely associated with the north-west, such as Mike Dodd, Edward Hughes and Jim Malone, he has placed great emphasis on the use of locally-sourced materials for his clays, slips and glazes. Hake achieves a synthesis and depth of shape and decoration that is both confident and modern. He studied at Manchester Metropolitan University and in Ireland, establishing his present studio in the Lake District in 2005.

David Whiting