Tash Fry Klā
: I aim to harness nature into functional, tactile tableware & objects to bring awareness and slower pace to simple everyday moments :
May’s artists Discussion with Ceramicist Tash, from :Tash Fry Klā:
Photo taken by Anya Wilding
Thank you so much for being here and taking the time to sit in discussion with me Tash!
I wanted to start off with you introducing your lovely self & explaining to us all about the work you create :)
My name is Tash and I am a ceramicist based in amongst the beautiful chalks streams of Hampshire.
I aim to harness nature into functional, tactile tableware & objects to bring awareness and slower pace to simple everyday moments.
I use the hand-building technique which means I do not use a potter's wheel, so each and every one of my organic, earthy mugs, plates & bowls are all pinched and sculpted by my hands and fingers. Hand-building with clay has taught me the power of our own bodies & hands- ready made, perfect tools that provide us with endless, innate opportunities for creativity. It is this innate, paired back, intuitive process that my pieces aim to reflect.
I take my inspiration from the earth, working in continuation with clay’s natural origins within the river banks and the ground. I love to go hiking along rivers and forage my own wild clay to work with, which to me is a beautiful and grounding reminder of what our earth has to offer us if we only stop and look.
Photos taken by the artist, Tash Fry (mushroom dish in collaboration with Elsa Evelyn)
Such a gorgeous introduction to your work, there is something so grounding about art which has been stripped back, working with minimal tools & connecting back to primal ways of creating.
Do you remember how you came across pottery? what was it that originally drew you to this craft?
I initially came across clay when I was very very young, and I remember how much I loved the feeling of soft clay mixed with water on my skin. I loved how smooth it felt and how it seemed like I could sculpt and shape the material in any way I wanted. There were probably lots of times I came across clay at a young age, but I still remember that simple moment as the strongest feeling.
I remember the first time I saw someone throwing clay on a wheel it was again this combination of water and solid material- the smoothness the interaction between elements gave seemed so satisfying to me. I remember purchasing a labyrinth from that potter which I still have now. I wonder what it was about this piece that drew me in as a very young child, & I can only think it was again this movement they captured in the clay & the material.
I think I have always been very interested in form which led me to study architecture 4 years ago at university. It is such a great passion of mine, but I remember throughout my course struggling with the intangibility of it, as every concept or design I dreamed up could never actually become a real life thing. All the work was also very digital and computer based, so when I finally finished my degree in the middle of the pandemic I was craving creating something real & physical - almost innate and simple- with my own hands! To hand build something in that moment and have the final result sitting in front of you was very alien to me at that point, and I think I fell in love with the process of building and physicalizing my concepts & thoughts.
It is this simple, paired back yet invaluable idea I aim to convey through my workshops, classes & courses, as well as my actual pieces.
Once I had been able to practice handbuilding every day for about a year, I was finally able to start exploring my own take on ceramics and my interests within the field. I rediscovered my complete fascination with the material's natural origins, and its life as a raw material existing on the river banks amongst the plants, animals & rocks. Perhaps I was finally going back to my first interactions with clay as a child.
Photos taken by Dre Da Silva
Tash, this is beautiful, events throughout your life have made you come back to where you’re suppose to be! You listened to what you wanted to be doing & now your passion has become your living, discovering your own way within ceramics.
You mention how you found your place in the world of ceramics through its raw form, could you talk to us about how you incorporate this into your work & what it means to you to work with its natural, organic state?
Absolutely - this is the part of my practice which I am most passionate about and most proud of, as it feels very authentically 'me'.
Although I am barely scratching the surface of working with raw and wild materials in the practice of ceramics - there are so many incredibly inspirational artists out there who are so knowledgeable in this field who I look up to, and I am trying to work towards this level in my own practice.
Since I am self-taught, I was, and still am, very much going through my discovery and journey of clay at my own pace. All I focused on for about a year were my skills in hand building and perfecting my technique, and then I suddenly entered into a new kind of 'zone' one day when my focus shifted towards the material I was using. I remember going for a walk in the middle of lock down and bringing a ball of clay with me to pinch a dish on the way. I sat by the river and used some of the river water to smooth my piece, and pressed in some of the fallen willow leaves on the bank. It sounds strange but I feel like my whole mind had suddenly unlocked a hundred new levels within my practice - the freedom & exploration handbuilding with clay could offer, it's origins from the ground beneath our feet - I suddenly realised there was no 'right' way to do ceramics and I could explore whatever I wanted. I hadn't really properly considered clay as a material until that point, but it felt so natural to sit there and incorporate other elements of the earth into my piece. That was when I began my exploration into wild clays, going on hikes to find them, working with them, & weaving other natural materials like leaves and other local rocks into my pieces. I haven't really had the time that I would like to dedicate to this research just yet. I am just this month also beginning research into creating natural glazes from plant life and rocks, which really, really excites me! But I've become at peace with the idea that this kind of exploration is like my next 3-5 years of work to truly understand it all. I hope to be able to balance my time over the next year to allow myself to get stuck into this more, long-term exploration and perhaps even study a geology course one day!
Photos taken by Izzy Callan
This is so exciting Tash, I can't wait to watch as your path goes deeper into working in alignment with the earth. Natural glazes just sound heavenly, what amazing things you’re about to explore!
I know alongside expanding your knowledge in your field of work, attending regular market stalls, holding handbuilding workshops & courses, you also have recently launched retreats! These retreats are in beautiful alignment with all the knowledge you are gaining about a more raw, primal way of creating with clay.
I would love for you to talk about what is in this new container & how it is bringing women together to explore their creativity in celebration with the earth's elements.
Thank you Jess! So, so excited to explore them too!
Yes, workshops and retreats are a massive part of my work - in terms of services within my business they are the things that come most naturally to me.
I just so desperately want to share the feeling of creativity with others, because it is something that truly carries me through life and the most difficult times. It is so unbelievably powerful to realise that you can be endlessly sustained from your own mind and inner thoughts, and manifest them into something physical, & to share that with others is an incredibly connecting, unique experience.
As you say, the retreats and workshops align so perfectly with the knowledge I am gaining about a more raw, primal way of creating with our earth's materials. I think one of my main goals is that I want to help other people to experience and realise the beauty and potential of everything that we already have on our planet that is just sitting right in front of us, just waiting to be celebrated. I want to share and explain this cyclical feeling, that we are able to find joys and creative uses for natural materials that already exist and bring them into a new phase of life. It can seem like such a basic obvious concept but one that I feel has become so lost over the past 10 years as we've grown more reliant on materialistic, instant pleasures, and has never been more relevant as we need to be so conscious of the materials and products we produce on our planet.
I am a very strong believer in experiential learning, that is the idea that you can only relate to a concept when you have experienced it yourself, especially a more distant, or abstract one. I studied it within architecture and I think that is what I am trying to bring through in my workshops and retreats. I think by allowing people to use their hands to create their own natural earth ceramics they can begin to appreciate the bigger picture. It helps people to re-connect to the most important things that sustain us, things that we see as our basic life - our sense of touch, the ground we walk on, the trees we live among, the water in the seas and the rivers, the air we breathe.
Photo taken by Anya Wilding
Thank you Tash for sharing this, it is something special to be able to learn about our surroundings & what they hold, to make us feel more connected to the land we live upon.
Its a blessing that you offer these retreats for us to be able to grow our knowledge on what nature & the earth provides right in front of us! Tash, it has been an absolute pleasure to have had this conversation with you, thank you for sharing about the wonders of your earthly ceramics & the beauty of clay. I can't wait to hear more about your work as it unfolds in the near future!
Thank you so much for having me! Your questions have been so calming and guiding - I have loved chatting with you. It's actually been such a wonderful chance for me to reflect on my work.
As is your work Jess, your pieces are also such a beautiful reflection of the earth and our natural surroundings.
Thank you again for having me, I'm excited to reflect back upon this discussion in a few years and see where we both are then, and see if we are where we expected! Life has such a lovely way of taking us on unexpected paths.
Photo taken by the Artist, Tash Fry.