Kinsman-Blake ceramics is a working studio pottery near to the historic and beautiful border town of Kelso. All clays, glazes and colours are formulated and mixed in our workshop using naturally occurring raw materials. Our work is all hand made and hand decorated before being fired to 1200 degrees centigrade in our own kiln on the premises, thus ensuring a continuity, commitment and intimate knowledge with the finished article. Commissions for all types of ceramics are welcomed and hand made tiles for both domestic and architectural applications are undertaken.
Rankin and Linda Kinsman-Blake have been involved in the manufacture of hand made ceramics in the Scottish Borders since 1979. Once fired ceramic, that is the use of specially adapted glazes made to fit the individual clay that one uses (in our case a blend of two clays!). The glazes are applied directly to the dry but unfired clay. This process is extremely fickle but once perfected ensures a closer relationship between clay and glaze and ultimately a more robust product. Therefore we can supply a product which is not only highly durable but also very attractive to look at.
With a commitment to spontaneous surface decoration, mainly brushwork is employed over a white tin glaze. Of course a white background increases decorative opportunity and more use of colour. Brush strokes themselves have an independent decorative meaning irrespective of what they portray and this combined with many years of life drawing has inevitably led to numerous depictions of the human figure on ceramics. This is a particularly exacting and demanding technique calling for an extraordinary degree of confidence exciting and spontaneity, because once a brush loaded with ceramic colour touches the unfired glaze surface that unique brush stroke has to be completed. No going back, no rubbing out. Linda Kinsman-Blake continues to pursue and push these difficult techniques to further limits ensuring that a long tradition of ceramic artistry continues in a modern way.