Having enjoyed a distinguished international career as a musician, Pamela completed a Foundation Art and Design course in 2017 at York College where she was awarded the Governor’s Prize for Outstanding Contribution. Having subsequently taken up a place to study for a degree in Fine Art at Leeds University, Pamela decided in her first term to change plan and instead set up her own studio at home. During 2018 she discovered clay and in particular, porcelain as a medium which offered endless challenges and possibilities to create sculptural and functional forms with qualities of timelessness, light, inherent strength and balance.
Pamela Thorby has swapped her musician's life for a new path in craftsmanship, making and firing her unique wheel thrown ceramics in her own studio in York and running her own ceramics gallery and teaching space at Nunnington Pottery.
Playing with gesture, rhythm and form, Pamela's development as a maker continues with a body of sculptural and functional work reflecting her improvisational and imaginative abilities in her former career as a distinguished musician.
Making work on the wheel mainly in porcelain, Pamela aims is translate the dynamism and sensitivity for which she was known in her life as a musician, into beautiful pieces which are as much objects of contemplation as they are favourite items in everyday use.
Please follow @nunningtonpottery on Instagram to see the latest work out of the kiln.
Timeline
2017
- Completed Foundation Art and Design Diploma at York College.
- Building work completed on studio in garden.
- Last concert performances in 2016.
2018
- First lessons in clay with ceramicist Penny Phillips at Pica Studios and throwing classes with Edyn Culverwell at Old Stables Studios, Hebden Bridge, UK.
- Finishing last year of teaching at Royal Academy of Music.
- Join Pica Studios for a year.
2019
- Exhibit at Potfest Scotland, Scone Palace, Scotland (first show: hand built porcelain)
- Staithes Festival of Arts, Yorkshire, UK (hand-built porcelain).
- Shades of Clay at Kunsthuis Gallery, Crayke, Yorkshire (hand built porcelain).
- Attend week course in throwing with Richard Phethean, Cornwall, UK.
2020
- Selected for York Open Studios, York (hand-built porcelain).
- Decide to concentrate solely on wheel-thrown work.
- Practise through lockdown at home.
2021
- York Open Studios (wheel-thrown work).
- Nunnington Pottery
- Nunnington UK opens in Autumn.
- Artist in York Grapevine Project.
2022
- First season at Nunnington Pottery Begin teaching taster sessions.
- York Open Studios
- Nunnington Hall Love Local.
- Exhibition at Found Gallery, Brecon, Wales.
- Ryedale Open Studios.
- Jigsaw store, Stonegate, York through November.
- Attend wheel-thrown course at Tortus, Copenhagen.
2023
- Second season of running Nunnington Pottery.
- York Open Studios
- Ryedale Open Studios
- Nunnington Hall Autumn Festival.
- Jigsaw store, Stonegate, York through December.
- First commissions accepted.
- Attend short course at Clay College with Adam Frew in porcelain.
2024
- Third season of Nunnington Pottery.
- Helmsley Arts Centre exhibition (porcelain wheel-thrown work).
- Commissioned to make prizes for Kirkbymoorside 10k race.
- Hovingham Market first Saturday of each month.
- The Gallery, Malton through November.
- Jigsaw store, Stonegate, York through December.
- Focussing on throwing in porcelain.
