Ellie Woods

Ellie hails from Cumbria and after graduating from a Fine Art degree in Liverpool John Moore’s University in 2018, she commenced her Apprenticeship at the Leach Pottery on 5 July 2021, joining the Studio alongside our highly skilled team of production potters, learning the craft of making Leach Standard Ware.

As well as working on Standard Ware, Ellie has made a large body of individual work, some of which was included in our Entrance Gallery Exhibition ‘Studio_Space’ in 2022. Her first solo graduation show, ‘Ellie Woods: An Apprenticeship' was presented in our Shop Gallery in the summer of 2024, and later as an Online Exhibition.

An important element of her work is that it is made for use; Ellie explains:

“I like the intimacy of creating work that is going to be used, for example a mug for someone’s morning coffee. I am playing with slip underneath glazes to add texture and decoration to the pots. Some slips are watered down clay, others I have mixed from powdered clays and added colouring oxides. All with the hope of creating an individual style in combination with using the traditional Leach Studio glazes. "

Ellie has been exploring wood-firing and the unique surfaces, colours and effects that result from it. During 2024 she has been working alongside Cornwall-based potter, John Mackenzie, who has built several wood-fired kilns. Poignantly, her current work was part of the last firing, before the kiln was dismantled. John will be re-locating and re-building an updated kiln soon.