Jane Gibson works as a Physiotherapist. She first had her hands in clay in 1974 when she attended an adult education class. It was love at first feel. She continued with classes between living abroad and having children and in 1986 bought a wheel and kiln. She joined the Kent Potters Association in 1984 and this has provided continued learning opportunities. She was a committee member for ten years and Chairman for four years and is now editor of the Kent Potters Newsletter.

In 1992 she worked in Karachi, Pakistan with her husband where she also taught ceramics at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. She travelled widely and became fascinated by traditional potters who use the same techniques as their forebears. On returning to England she completed parts 1&2 of the Ceramic City and Guilds diploma using her studies of the domestic ware of India and Pakistan as the basis for her research project. She was inspired by the firemarkings on lowfired pots and the colour flashes from pitfiring and evolved a paper kiln technique.

She has travelled most years to the Indian sub-continent where she has documented the skills of village potters. During 2014 and 2015 she travelled frequently to Sierra Leone where her husband was working as a doctor. While the Ebola crisis was on she could not travel into the countryside but later managed to find some traditional potters.
The articles are all on this website.

Publications

Ceramic Review No 178 "Potters of Bindapur" 1999
Ceramic Review No 211 "Changing Times" 2005
Ceramic Review No 235 "Changing Times" 2009
Ceramic Review No 242 "Breaking Tradition" 2010
Ceramics Technical Australia No24 "Paper Kiln Firing" 2007

Her photographs of Goan potters appear in "Smoke-fired Pottery" by Jane Perryman

She writes regularly for the Kent Potters magazine.

Memberships

Kent Potters Association
London Potters Association
Society of Women Artists
Associate member of the Craft Potters Association

Exhibitions

Art in Clay at Hatfield and Farnham with Kent Potters
Mall Gallery with Society of Women Artists
Morley Gallery with London Potters