Abi Higgins is a ceramicist based on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, where her studio adjoins the old mill house in which she lives. Over more than two decades, her practice has evolved from thrown domestic ware towards increasingly expressive individual pieces, with Raku firing becoming central to her work.

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Abi is particularly drawn to elegant, generous forms — bottles, vessels and, especially, Moon Jars. Her fascination with the Moon Jar began after seeing an example that had belonged to Bernard Leach at Aberystwyth University Museum. The apparent simplicity and balance of the form captivated her, and it has remained an enduring focus of her work.

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Her Moon Jars are wheel-thrown using the traditional technique of making two separate sections and joining them to create the rounded form. Abi works with a mixture of porcelain and Raku clay and has developed her own distinctive approach to surface decoration, mixing her own glazes and washes and firing the work in a Raku kiln that she built herself.

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Copper wash is a recurring feature of her work. During the dramatic final stages of the Raku process, the red-hot pot is removed from the kiln and subjected to post-firing reduction. Fire, smoke and changing levels of oxygen interact with the copper to produce flashes of colour, iridescence and metallic tones across the surface. The results can be encouraged but never completely controlled, giving every finished piece its own character.

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Abi also explores Naked Raku, in which a resist layer cracks and separates from the pot during firing, allowing smoke to leave delicate black markings across the burnished surface. The contrast between these quieter monochrome surfaces and the intense colours of her copper work demonstrates the breadth of expression she finds within Raku.

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This balance between control and unpredictability lies at the heart of Abi’s practice. The form of each pot is carefully considered and refined at the wheel, but firing introduces an element that cannot be entirely predetermined. It is this transformation — and the moment of discovery when a pot emerges from the firing process — that continues to fascinate her.

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Abi began making pottery around twenty-five years ago, following an earlier career as a dancer and teacher of dance and exercise. What began with a weekly pottery class developed into formal craft and design study, an apprenticeship with Devon potter Penny Simpson, and a continuing process of learning through workshops, experimentation and practice and si now a member of Make Southwest.

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Living and working in Devon has also been important to her development as a maker. She has learnt from a number of distinguished potters in the region and continues to explore new approaches to clay, glaze and firing. Alongside her Raku work, she makes high-fired domestic ware using mineral-rich Cornish clay and Chinese-inspired glazes whose colours reflect the landscape around her — the moor, sea and sky.

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Abi’s work is ultimately about the relationship between form, material and fire: carefully made pots transformed by a firing process that introduces spontaneity and chance. Each piece carries the evidence of that process on its surface and, because those conditions can never be precisely repeated, each is genuinely individual.