This cookie is used to remember display settings for colour contrast and font sizes set by the user in the accessibility options panel. But not all crafts were created equal and, while all those things may all be true, the biggest pressure on creative people working in cities is space, and pottery is a particularly space-hungry pursuit. Be that as it may, the proximity to clients, culture and collaboration makes it worth the expense for many. It takes a special type of person with a great deal of humility and patience to deal with the unique challenges of working with clay. At every stage, there are a multitude of things that can go wrong – often remaining undetected until a pot explodes in the kiln, taking everything else with it. As Benedict Fludd says, ‘failure with clay is more complete and more spectacular than with other forms of art.’ Perhaps it just takes a very special type of person to work with clay in the city – urban potters might just have to add grit and determination to their humility and patience.

These movements were a rejection, not only of industrialisation, but also of the cities where industrialisation took place. Writing in 20th Century Ceramics, Edmund de Waal asserts, Or, as Tanya Harrod puts it, ‘Making technically imperfect pots was an anti-modern response to new processes and materials, to what DH Lawrence called “the tragedy of ugliness” that appeared to characterise the industrialised world.’ In contrast, A Potter’s Book offered a reassuring image of a potter happily apart from contemporary society, and it’s no coincidence that Leach chose the Cornish village of St Ives to establish his pottery.News about our Dezeen Awards programme, including entry deadlines and announcements. Plus occasional updates. Dezeen Events Guide Katie Treggiden is a design writer, editor, curator, lecturer and consultant. Treggiden writes for the Guardian Magazine, the Telegraph Magazine, Elle Decoration and Icon, among others. She is the author of The Makers of East London and of The Residents: Inside the Iconic Barbican Estate.

This cookie is used to record what callouts have been dismissed during a session to ensure they do not re-appear. And that patience may be starting to pay off. Tanya Harrod argues that fired, glazed clay, long neglected by art critics and historians, is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves: ‘In this brave new world, Grayson Perry’s 2003 Turner Prize, bestowed upon a room full of pots, signifies a change of heart, an abandonment of the fustian hierarchies that have marginalised ceramics.’ Although she does point out, quite rightly, that this attention all-to-often seems to be focused on male artists, rather then the usually female craftspeople who make their work, or indeed studio potters. News about our Dezeen Awards China programme, including entry deadlines and announcements. Plus occasional updates.As well as giving insight into handmade ceramics into the various cities, the book also includes a practical source list of places to buy handmade pottery in the six cities featured. In the event of a true, unavoidable emergency, we will do our best to work within the studios schedule to help you make up your class. And so while the well-documented rise of industrial pottery was taking place in Stoke-on-Trent, studio pottery was quietly asserting itself in opposition. Denmark’s mid-century studio pottery movement similarly developed in parallel to Royal Copenhagen’s factory-made porcelain. The book also maps out the shift from the standardisation and mass-manufacturing of pottery, to the revived interest in handmade ceramics – which has seen Turner prize-winning Assemble "squish" coloured clays to create one-of-a-kind products, and Alissa Volchkova create porcelain bowls that look like paint blobs.