Meet the Maker: Sophie Fletcher of Zosia Ceramics

There’s something instantly recognisable about a piece of Zosia Ceramics. Warm stoneware clay, painterly brushstrokes, playful irregularities and beautiful little details that make every mug, bowl and vase feel completely individual.

Based in Cambridgeshire, ceramicist Sophie Fletcher creates beautiuful pottery by hand, throwing each piece on a traditional kick wheel before painting it with oxides in loose floral and abstract patterns. Her work is deeply influenced by her Polish heritage, from the folk art and ceramics she grew up surrounded by to sentimental objects and memories passed down through her family.

Even the name Zosia is personal. It’s the Polish name for Sophie, used by her mum and still used by her Polish family today. That connection to home, family and memory runs throughout her work.

What we especially love about Sophie’s ceramics is that they aren’t trying to be perfectly uniform. Fingerprints, brush marks, dips, bumps and unexpected moments from the firing process are all celebrated as part of the finished piece. They’re objects designed to be lived with and used every day, while still feeling incredibly special.

We caught up with Sophie to talk about how she first fell in love with clay, her Polish heritage, the joy of working on a traditional kick wheel and why she believes the happy accidents are often the best part.

How did you first find your way into working with clay?

I’m Sophie and I make ceramics using a warm-toned stoneware clay, finishing each piece with hand painted patterns inspired by nature and my Polish heritage. Zosia Ceramics comes from seeking comfort whilst celebrating the beautiful parts of the home and getting cosy.

How did you first find your way into working with clay?

I always felt drawn to ceramics and would seek out art shops with handmade pieces on display, especially picking out the ceramics that had interesting textures and perhaps were a little more irregular. I took a ceramics class in my village and immediately got obsessed with it.

Where did the name Zosia come from, and what does it mean to you?

Zosia is Polish for Sophie. It's the name that my mum called me by and my Polish family still call me by. So it’s just my way of keeping that alive. It also evokes for me the Polish heritage that I'm inspired by.

Your Polish heritage is woven through your work. How does it influence the shapes, colours and patterns you create?

I've thought about this a lot, and I think that it's more a feeling that I'm trying to evoke from my childhood. It's very much my internal creativity mixed with the folk art that I grew up with around our family home and on every trip that we made to Poland exploring lots of different cities, towns and villages. I really enjoyed visiting family in the countryside and city because I got exposed to a lot of different interiors, most of which were put together over time, not in a designed way. It made it all the more beautiful I think because on one dining table there’d be a knackered plastic clock with big digits next to a delicate embroidered cloth next to a hand painted ceramic bowl and a wooden hand painted folk bench for us to sit on. There’s no waste in homes like that because nothing is thrown out just because it looks naff or doesn’t go with the subjectively beautiful items.

It’s not surprising that my favourite local place to visit is Kettle’s Yard as it has a similar philosophy. Folk art hung on walls everywhere we visited and of course lots at our family home. We still have my mum’s massive collection of Boleslawiec pottery, which is the famous blue and white pottery. Every year that we went to Poland, we'd always make sure to pop into our favourite Boleslawiec shop in Warsaw that was very tucked away. You could find all kinds of patterns, piles upon piles of different patterns. In one corner there was a collection of Unikat pieces, which is like the artist's individual or unique design, so you could get some really cool one offs. I guess I find it inspiring that Poland still cherishes and celebrates their own folk cultural movement as part of their identity.

You work on a traditional kick wheel rather than an electric wheel. What do you love about working this way?

I love my kick wheel because first of all, I've never used an electric wheel. I started learning on a kick wheel, and then the first one that came up for sale second hand happened to be a kick wheel, and it’s the one I use to this day. It feels more interactive I suppose. I feel like I’m putting more of myself in each piece. I'm physically kicking the wheel, influencing the way my hands work on the clay, which is why each piece is very slightly different to each other.

It's trickier with larger pieces because of the physical effort involved in kicking the wheel and controlling my hands at the same time. I really love the unpredictability though, and that's why I choose the materials that I work with, to introduce an element of surprise. The oxides too can do something unexpected in the glaze firing. It’s like opening a box of undiscovered gems every time I get pieces fired.

Where do you tend to find inspiration for new pieces and collections?

I think it's more a feeling of inspiration rather than directly drawing from anything in particular. The only thing I've taken direct inspiration from is a wall tapestry that was passed down from my Polish grandfather, who sadly I never met. Occasionally I'll do versions of the birds and trees depicted in the tapestry.

The inspiration usually comes when I've got the paintbrush in hand and I suddenly feel compelled to do something with it. I use scratchier brushes with stiffer bristles because I really like to be able to see the brush marks on the surface and the varying thicknesses and strengths of the oxides that I use. It adds more depth to the pattern. I would say it's a mixture of intuition and intention - I don’t tend to draft a design, I just go with my intuition.

Your ceramics have such a distinctive, playful quality. How has your style evolved since you first started making?

The initial blue flowers design was just a spur of the moment thing. It was inspired by this little flower doodle that my mum would always do on greetings cards to us. It was just the first design that felt right, and I really loved the way that it came out with the oxides that I happened to use on the clay.

That’s how I try to approach the painting stage even now because I like to feel excited by the spontaneity. And that painterly style is part of the unpredictability - I use a thicker brush with sticky-out bristles so that it forces my hand a bit to be more playful and gestural. I enjoy translating the patterns in my head to the surface of a pot using these brushes and seeing how they come out, so that in some way that part is out for my control. I might have an idea, but I don't feel that frustration of trying to capture it exactly onto the canvas, because I deliberately take that control out of my hands.

Can you talk us through the process of making one of your pieces, from the initial idea to the finished pot?

I weigh out the clay and prepare it for throwing. I then throw using my kick wheel. I tend to pull my handles, which is that motion that everybody giggles at. I also love manipulating the pieces straight after they’ve come off the wheel, pressing my fingers or palm against the sides to making impressions.

Each pot is then tidied up, bisque fired, sanded, signed, waxed on the base, decorated, glazed, tidied again, glaze fired, and then sanded to ensure there aren’t any scratchy bits that might damage anybody’s surfaces at home. There's not much preamble to the design process. I like to get in there and maybe something pops into my head when I'm preparing the balls of clay for throwing, or I simply react as I go rather than have an intention or preconception of what I'm making. I want each piece to be a little bit individual.

Is there a particular piece you most enjoy making, or one that feels especially personal to you?

I've always loved mugs. There’s something special about a handmade object, a piece of art, that you have permission to hold in your hands for an extended period of time. I love it when a beautiful object is also useful, and you have an excuse to interact with it, rather than just look at it. I try to keep any happy accidents as a little surprise for whoever's holding the mug so as their drinking from it they might come across the dips and bumps that have been left by the maker.

What do you hope someone feels when they take one of your pieces home and use it in everyday life?

I hope that these pieces go to someone who appreciates the intentional irregularities and happy accidents that occur in the making process. Perhaps someone who will be inspired to try making ceramics one day too, just like me.

What does “Radical Living” mean to you?

Radical living to me means living differently. It means actively choosing one thing over another. Wanting a more expensive item, like a handmade mug or bowl, because they love how it looks and appreciate the craftsmanship behind it, rather than going for something that does the same functional thing but made cheaply on mass.

I suppose that's the radical part, going against the grain regardless of what people think. Investing in real grafters and crafters, people who work hard to make something beautiful, and really think about the person receiving that item as they're making it.

We’re so proud to have Sophie’s beautiful ceramics as part of the Radical Living collection.

Shop the Zosia Ceramics collection here.

Photography by Marco Kesseler