Katrin Moye: From maker, to artist and maker

Photo: Katrin Moye

Photo: Katrin Moye

Photo: Katrin Moye

Photo: Katrin Moye

Katrin Moye was a successful potter who produced hand-thrown and painted tableware as well as managing a small studio production team. She felt as if she was ‘in a rut’ and although she had ideas for taking the business further, she was unsure of the direction. She was concerned about losing her hard won fan base if she made too radical a departure from her existing style.

I first worked with her to clarify her thoughts and priorities, making a plan for a new direction in her career over the next 18 months.

I helped her to apply for a Grants for the Arts application for research and development. She received a grant of £20,000 to allow her the time to develop new ideas for her practice.

The initial plans of working with industry to make larger batch production work changed into stepping back from the studio production and managing her staff altogether. The grant afforded her the time to look at artists and makers who she admired and find a new direction in her work.

She became interested in the aesthetics and literature of the last fifty years of the 20th century, which helped her to build on her love of mid-century pattern and design.

Having had more time to understand her own family history of this period, with its post-war complexities, it led her to look at ideas around collecting and collectors, which was a previously overlooked connection between her and other members of her family.

She stepped away from making multiple batches to making beautiful one-off or limited edition wide, elegant plates, in which she placed single images inside a framework of pattern.

She now draws and paints regularly and has found an audience for her watercolours. Another aspect of her income is generated through greetings cards and prints, which provides another impetus for painting.

Aa result of reviewing and developing her artistic and business practices she has created new ways of making and selling work, resulting in an increased income.