Craft Gallery Showcase: Fire and Form

Brigitte Colleaux / The Hide Studio / Beth Osment

27 October 2026 – 17 January 2027

Our Winter Showcase takes its inspiration from fire and form. Brigitte Colleaux’s wood-fired pots and The Hide Studio’s charred-wood utensils convey drama and texture in the simplest of domestic wares. Meanwhile, textile artist Beth Osment contrasts glowing autumnal hues with striking silhouettes in her wall hangings, quilts and bags, bringing light and shade to the gentle rhythms of natural forms.

Brigitte Colleaux creates tableware and one-off pieces, lining each with celadon or a white ash glaze. She often leaves the outer surfaces bare to celebrate the effects of wood firing, and increasingly works without glaze, using grasses to mark the clay. Mindful of the environment, Brigitte and her team are exploring shorter firings under the guidance of her partner, Svend Bayer, in the kiln he built for Oxford Kilns.  Born in the French Ardennes, Brigitte took pottery lessons from Ray Silverman and Lisa Hammond. She developed her throwing skills and wood-firing practice alongside Svend.

Richard Inight and Jane Pollock run The Hide Studio in Morwenstow, on the North Cornwall coast. Using local fallen and managed trees, or driftwood gathered on nearby beaches, they make bowls and other woodenwares while the wood is still green and then leave them to dry naturally. In drying out, the wood moves and changes shape, setting its own final form. Surfaces are finished with natural oils or milk paint.  We are featuring a range of burned pieces that are finished to a rich, silky black to reveal the lines and depth of the grain.

Textile artist Beth Osment began creating fabric designs from her two daughters’ outgrown clothes. Now working from her Exeter studio, she uses linen, deadstock and upcycled materials to create sustainable quilts, wall hangings and items such as jackets and cushions. Her background is in landscape architecture, and her abstract designs are inspired by the restorative elements of nature, such as flow, seasonal change, cycles of the moon, and the growth of plants, to ground and restore us. Winner of a Devon Artist Network Emerging Artist Bursary in 2025, Beth sees quilts as heirlooms that connect memory through generations.

Image Credit: (Left to right) The Hide Studio, Brigitte Colleaux, Beth Osment