Jodie Crook Giles
“I’m learning all the time. I’m motivated by the feedback from people who love and use my tableware everyday. Without their encouragement I wouldn’t be the potter I am today.”
Jodie is driven by achieving the best quality and form in whatever she makes, creating useful and beautiful items for the home.
Jodie lives near Coombe on Dartmoor and swims in the river most days. She works in stoneware and spends time focusing on making her own glazes. She taught herself to throw at college when she was 16 and loved it, she then thought a career and a ‘proper job’ was the right path, as a result she didn’t touch clay again for 17 years. After her mum died when Jodie was 32, it hit her hard how short life is, and when clearing out her Mum’s things, she found all her old pots that her mum had kept and cherished. Jodie’s husband, to help her with the grief, booked Jodie a pottery course. It was with Laurel Keeley here at Coombe and she fell in love with clay all over again. Jodie went on to do evening classes, and then a two-year pottery apprenticeship. That led her to becoming a pottery teacher at Studio 45 with Richenda Macgregor, Mel Chambers, and Raphaela Seck. Her work became part-time and she still works three days a week, on energy and climate change. When Jodie isn’t working she now spends most of the rest of her time potting in her mega shed in the garden, which she built with her husband Tim.
Jodie is committed to a life making pots and given that we’re in a climate emergency she’s also committed to making it as energy efficient and eco conscious as she can.
