I make curvaceous pottery with striking surface designs in earthy colours

I arrived here after a long career in a wildly different specialism…

And it all began in Africa.

I grew up in Zambia and Kenya. 

At 18 years old, I had to choose whether to pursue a career in science or art.

I had no artist role models and in a developing country science trumps art as a viable career path.

So I moved to the UK and worked as a secretary to earn home student status. 

I earned a biochemistry degree from Imperial College London, then a PhD in neurobiology from King’s College London.

Science & academia

My career progressed.  I spent 16 fulfilling years as an academic at Imperial leading research on central nervous system regeneration and teaching.  

Throughout this time I found artistic outlets as best I could through the odd life drawing class here and abstract art evening course there.   

But it’s not easy to develop your artistic expression when you’re trying to write funding applications, publish papers, run a research group and convene modules alongside raising a family.

Discovering pottery

In 2018, my husband Nick bought me a term of evening pottery classes at Aylesford Pottery & School of Ceramics.  

By then, I was a professor and in university leadership as Deputy Vice Chancellor for Education at St George’s, University of London.  

That 90 minutes a week became an oasis, a wonderful way to switch off from a stressful job and five hours a day commuting.  I just carried on, spending all my time on the wheel, falling in love with clay.

A new life as an artist

Over the next seven years I developed a personal style and accumulated a pottery collection, alongside my professional life.  

I’d always dreamt of being an artist. At the beginning of 2023 I decided to take the plunge and gave myself two years to wrap up my academic career.   

I’d imagined going to art college. Studying. Learning. Exploring.  But pottery had taken over.  By the time I retired. I’d bought a wheel, set up a garden studio & formed Catchpole Saffell Art.  

Catchpole Saffell Art

Jane Saffell is my professional identity in science and academia, my married name, the one on my scientific publications and patents.  

Years before, when I had to choose between science and art, my name was Jane Catchpole

Trading as Catchpole Saffell Art seemed a fitting way to close the circle.

“I’ve always had a deep affinity with circles. They feature in my designs and guide the curvaciousness of the forms I throw.”

Bioscience motifs and colours of Africa

Some of my patterns evoke cellular vesicles in endocytosis or the reticulate arrangement of mammalian cells growing in culture. 

This is not purposeful or illustrative. Recognition comes post design, often by ex-colleagues from academia. “That looks like endocytosis!”

Other designs come from thought experiments, for example, imagining a glaze veil behaving like a mesh bag stretched across the form.  

I use a limited palette of earthy colours, probably influenced by the landscapes I grew up with in Zambia and Kenya.

Function and beauty

Being in a continuum of potters through the ages who make beautiful vessels for everyday use gives me a buzz. 

I think it’s incredible that Minoan cups from five millennia ago look so fresh and contemporary.

My hope is that people who buy my pottery find pleasure from using it every day, handling it, feeling the texture, being uplifted by the patterns.   

All my pottery is dishwasher and microwave safe. It’s made with Valentines HT special stoneware and fired to 1250 degrees Celsius.

Exhibitions and shows

I make slow pottery and get to know all of my pieces well, so I love to know the people who buy them.  

I burnish by hand using the back of a teaspoon and then a smooth pebble.  It takes time but I love feeling the clay body and achieving the miracle of a mirror finish on mud.  

Interacting with customers at pottery shows where there is an opportunity for people to handle the pieces and have interesting conversations is what I enjoy most.  

I do also sell direct, so get in touch if you see a new piece on Instagram that you’re interested in.

Sign up for my mailing list to hear about upcoming exhibitions, news and musings.

Function and beauty

𐃢 𐃡

Function and beauty 𐃢 𐃡

2026

Potfest South East - Glynde Place, 22-24 May, Glynde nr Lewes

Celebrating Ceramics, 10-12 July, Waterperry Gardens, Oxford

Show Off Gallery, 11-17 September, Whitstable, Kent

Potfest in the Pens - Melton Mowbray, 30 October-1 November

2025

Art in Clay, Farnham, November 

Potfest in the Pens, Melton Mowbray, November

Kent Potters Association Ceramics Market, Knockholt, October

Show Off Gallery, Whitstable, September

Celebrating Ceramics, Waterperry Gardens Oxford, July

Kent Potters Association Exhibition, Hall Place Bexley, June-July

Margate Ceramics Market, Turnery Contemporary Gallery, March

2024

Kent Potters Association Ceramics Market, Knockholt, October

Wrotham Arts Festival, Wrotham, May

Keep in touch

 Join my mailing list using the form below

Follow me on Instagram Catchpole Saffell Art to see work in progress and new pieces.  

Use the form on the Contact page to drop me a line.