Rachel Wood
Her work, deeply tactile and emotionally resonant, bears the traces of her making process, finger-prints, tool marks, joins, rips, and draws inspiration from both the Derbyshire landscape near her home and the wild beauty of the Australian bush. A member of the Académie Internationale de la Céramique and the Craft Potters Association, she has won major awards including Germany’s Neue Keramik Prize (2016) and the Diessen Ceramic Prize (2017), and her pieces feature in international public collections in Denmark, Germany and Australia.
Rachel Wood is a highly respected contemporary ceramicist based in the UK, working from her studio at the Harley Foundation in Nottinghamshire. She combines a background in arts administration with fluency in modern languages,skills she draws on to navigate her international career. She earned a BA in 3D Design (Ceramics) from Loughborough College of Art & Design, and earlier pursued a BA in Modern Languages.
Her signature work is handbuilt, expressive ceramics with richly layered surfaces created through bespoke slips and glazes, where the traces of her process, fingerprints, joins, rips, and tool marks are left deliberately visible. These forms are frequently inspired by landscapes: the rugged beauty of the Derbyshire countryside around her home and the raw, textured vegetation of the Australian bush.
Wood’s work has earned her significant recognition: she won Germany’s Neue Keramik Award in 2016 and the Diessen Ceramic Prize in 2017. She has also taken on residencies at notable institutions including the Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark and the Sturt Craft Centre in Australia, where in 2019 she held a three-month residency culminating in a solo exhibition.
Beyond her art practice, Wood is a committed educator: she regularly teaches at ceramic schools across Europe and Australia and serves as a residential tutor at international ceramics programs. She is a member of the Académie Internationale de la Céramique and the Craft Potters Association, which underlines her professional standing in the field.
Her work is included in public collections in Europe and Australia—such as the Guldagergaard Centre in Denmark, Diessen’s cultural collection in Germany, and the Sturt Craft Centre in New South Wales. Through her ceramics, Wood seeks not just to capture physical landscapes, but to evoke emotional and metaphysical depths, inviting viewers to sense both the human touch and a larger natural world.
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