Original BTC is taking part in the inaugural edition of Dovetail, a new two-weeks event in Manhattan bringing the work of exceptional British craftspeople to the other side of the Atlantic. In our SoHo showroom, we’re excited to be presenting a display of porcelain vessels by the gifted ceramicist Jennifer Alford.

Jennifer shares our belief in craftsmanship and in the quiet beauty of well-made objects. An award-winning, Irish-born ceramicist now based in rural Scotland, she works from a converted mill surrounded by the landscape that inspires her glazes and marks.

Trained first as a violinist before retraining in ceramics, she studied at the renowned Ceramics Skills and Design Course in Thomastown, Ireland – a rigorous foundation that underpins her expressive, natural approach to the wheel. Her vessels, rich with rhythm and weather, will be on show in our New York space throughout Dovetail.

Running from the 14th till 30th of October, Dovetail is a curator-led trail of contemporary British craft across selected Manhattan showrooms of British design brands. Co-founded by writer and curator Helen Chislett, the initiative brings together leading UK companies and independent makers, including those supported by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) and The King’s Foundation. It’s a celebration of the best of British craft — design made with care, integrity and enduring appeal.

In our conversation, Jennifer reflects on her unexpected journey into ceramics, the way the Scottish landscape continues to shape her practice, and the key lesson she wishes her students to carry forward.

You began your career as a musician. What drew you toward working in pottery and ceramics?

My first interaction with clay was after a bereavement. Art provided a way to process my grief. It was also the first time I had truly been able to totally switch off - the act of making is completely absorbing, your hands and mind are focussed on the task.

For several years I attended courses and workshops and taught myself. But, as with my musical training, I wanted the technical skills to express myself freely. So, I applied to the prestigious Ceramics skills course in Thomastown Ireland. They only take on twelve students every two years. It’s an intensive skills-based course which covered all the elements required to become a studio potter i.e. production throwing, glaze chemistry and kiln technology. 

What's your definition of beauty in the context of creating objects and spaces?

Nature is endlessly bountiful in beauty and in inspiration for colours, textures and marks. The land can be harsh and nature can be cruel, but I see beauty in the shadows and darkness. I want my objects to provoke a feeling or recognition of their origin. Sometimes the link is clear — a harvest-inspired glaze or a stone I found on a Dublin beach in 2020 that led to orange in my porcelain work. Other times it’s more of a sense of place in the lines or combinations of colours and textures.

What does the medium of ceramics mean to you, personally and artistically?

Ceramics is a hand skill that connects me to the land and to a wider community of makers dating back millennia. We use techniques that are hundreds of years old, and long after I’m gone, my thumbprint will remain on a bowl or cup I threw. It’s a great leveller — pottery takes years to master, and porcelain keeps your ego in check. Artistically, I love the balance between effort and freedom: the physical work of throwing and the spontaneity of mark-making. Clay is incredibly flexible. I can push forms, develop glazes for a specific tone or use the vessel as a canvas for expressive marks. It has become my artistic language with endless avenues for exploration and communication.

Your work is influenced by nature, particularly the Scottish landscape of your home. How do these pieces reflect that environment?

I respond directly to the landscape through my marks and glaze combinations, even in using local clays that, provoked by the kiln’s heat, produce textures and tones that evoke the terrain around me. All vessels become canvases for gestural brushwork and instinctive marks.

Can you tell us a little bit about the works on display in our showroom?

I make two distinct series, Landscape Vessels and the Neume Series. The Landscape vessels are a more literal representation of place through elemental glazes and spontaneous marks, influenced by colours and textures observed on daily walks through all seasons. Then there's the Neume Series, a further abstraction of the imagery and photographs I gather. Marks are applied spontaneously to wheel-thrown porcelain. Over time they evolve into a type of language. Drawing on abstract processes from music, I allow moments of chance as I improvise motifs and symbols on the surface, evoking the idea of a score.

At Original BTC, we know how much time and care it takes to perfect bone china by hand. Since ceramics is a medium we share a passion, what has been the biggest challenge for you, and how have you found ways to overcome it?

Porcelain’s intrinsic surface characteristics captivated me from day one - the translucency, the surface quality provides the perfect canvas for my marks. But as you know it is also an extremely tricky material which requires a lot of attention and care at every stage of the making process.

I have dedicated many years of experimentation and research to develop a technique to produce the quality of marks alongside building up my throwing skills. QEST was part of that journey. It allowed me time to work with masters of the craft and learn from their many years of experience.

What is a key insight you have gained from your experience and are passing on to your students?

It can be exhausting and frustrating, but what I have learned from all my teachers is there are no shortcuts and it just takes time to develop the skills and allow them to bed in. Like any skill worth knowing, it takes time and a lot of effort. There will be failures and I have shed tears when work has cracked straight out of the kiln. But you learn much more from failures than successes (something I continuously tell my students). Ceramics is not for the fainthearted, but when it works, it can be magical.

When you’re not in your studio drawing or making pottery, where might we find you? 

I am very lucky to live in rural Scotland. I have two dogs who get me out into the countryside every day no matter the weather. Over winter it gets too cold to work out in my studio so I will spend more time indoors in front of the fire enjoying a slower pace for a few months. I love to cook and am surrounded by farm land so we have lots of great local produce to enjoy.

Music is still incredibly important to me. I listen to music while working. It gets very loud and energetic when it comes to mark making.  I still play violin for pleasure, but I leave performances to the professionals these days and try to see live gigs whenever I can.