Body of Clay
Three works in dialogue with land and lineage.
This series begins with the body—not as subject, but as collaborator. Clay is gathered, pressed, pinched, and burnished by hands shaped by motherhood, fieldwork, and memory. Materials are gathered from the Weald and South Downs: flint grog, hornbeam ash, chalk, fungi pigment. Each piece is a site of contact.
Kinship holds the imprint of shared touch.
Prime-Mover has a broken head, awaiting repair.
Folk Specific echoes the Venus figurine, reimagined through the unpote form.
These works are small, but they carry weight: of ancestry, of ecological specificity, of transformation. They ask what it means to make with what’s beneath our feet—and to let the body remember through clay.
KINSHIP Field record: pit-fired figurine composed of Weald clay, flint grog, hornbeam ash, and iron ochre, and grog from contemporary makers. Surface pressed and burnished; form shaped by shared touch. Materials gathered from the Weald and South Downs. Archive entry: relational imprint, iron as memory trace. 6cm x 2cm. £220. Available for acquisition—Click image to invite this piece into your home.
PRIME-MOVER (in-process) Specimen record: fractured figurine, formed from Weald clay with flint grog. Surface left unburnished. Structure shaped in response to postnatal change—anatomical memory held in tensile form. Archive note: echoes of maternal musculature—flexion, adaptation, endurance. The head broke during play by my daughter. Not a vessel of fertility, but of aftermath and honour. The break recalls prehistoric figurines—child fingerprints pressed into clay, fragments carried across millennia. Repair will draw on foraged pine resin and Sussex iron remnants, continuing the dialogue between female embodiment and intergenerational touch. Clamp pit fired with Sussex hornbeam. 5 cm × 3.5 cm. Held in the archive.
FOLK SPECIFIC Venus reimagined: formed from Weald clay with flint rock grog, shaped in ocean tide and pigmented with South Downs chalk. The unpote form holds memory in its curve—kinship, ancestral ties, and the land’s distinct geology. Pit fired. Littlehampton West Beach at low tide. Archive note: a small body, weighted with myth and soil. 7.5cm x 6.8cm. £250. Available for acquisition—Click image to invite this piece into your home.
Each piece carries its own rhythm of making—some shaped by tide, some by memory, some still unfolding. Prices are listed to reflect scale and material, but availability and narrative depth vary. Prices are VAT-free and reflect market value. Direct purchases support the artist fully.
If a piece speaks to you, or if you’re curious about commissions, collaborations, or upcoming works, I’d love to hear from you.
Please reach out via laurie.jeanne.clay@gmail.com with any questions or reflections.