Michael and Victoria EDEN

View in collection Victoria Eden discovered the creative possibilities of clay compared to painting and drawing at 17. She began to make slipware two years later after returning from teaching with the VSO in the north east of Thailand. She established her first workshop in 1976 making slip decorated earthenware though it was not very popular at the time. Through trial and error she realised she needed to make a wood fired kiln to develop her work. In 1981 she married Michael Eden, who was working in nature conservation in the Lake District. They started working together and renovated a property in Hale, Cumbria, in 1987 where they built a new workshop and wood fired kiln. After having children, they sold their designs which they called ‘fishware’ encompassing many slipware techniques, but they felt they needed fresh inspiration to continue. During the 1990s, the Edens made study trips to Hungary, Portugal, and France, researching contemporary slipware for their co-written book Slipware, Contemporary Approaches (A&C Black 1999). On their return they concentrated on form, firing work in a new Fred Olsen fast-fire kiln, achieving added texture and softness of colour in their tableware. In 2001-2 they curated the touring exhibition of slipware The Snake in the Garden which opened in Aberystwyth. Michael Eden is working on a MPhil at the Royal College of Art, on actual and virtual explorations of the ceramic container. Victoria Eden worked on a project creating ceramic stepping stones at Morecambe bay to commemorate the lives of the cockle pickers who lost their lives there in 2004.

Details

• Dates: Michael Eden: 1955, Victoria Eden: 1953