Stuart Carey, the new ceramics mentor, guides Pip so she can realise her dream of having a viable creative business with a signature style. Pip’s episode shows on 6th March at 3.45pm.
Pip gained her BA(Hons) in Glass and Ceramics in 2010 and embarked on a career as a maker in the North East which included artist residencies in the USA. She went on to live in Lancashire and then Cumbria and armed with further qualifications in teaching and counselling, worked creatively in education and healthcare. Pip used clay as a wellbeing tool sharing the link between the creative process and emotional wellbeing with students and patients alike.
After a career helping others, Pip has come full circle, returning to Lancashire and to clay as a practicing artist striving to make it her sole employment. She can do brave things.
In between times Pip worked a variety of jobs enabling her to travel in Europe and Africa, including voluntary work teaching English as a second language at a refugee camp in Greece.
Never one to shirk from hard work this Lancashire lass has chosen porcelain as her clay of choice. Porcelain, the ‘Prima donna’ of clays, is known for its beauty but also a tendency to go its own way, as does ‘Potter Pip’. She pushes porcelain’s capabilities employing both the fragility and strength of the material. Colour plays a key role. She mixes pigments into a porcelain body to achieve a kaleidoscope of joy. She sees a link between the creative process and emotional wellbeing; being creative is her therapy, her escape.
Words such as resilience, fragility, integrity, humour, can do attitude and respect come to mind with Pip. No matter what life throws at her she manages to pick herself up and make use of her skills to keep on keeping on. Maybe this comes from her agricultural heritage, Pip being the granddaughter and niece of farmers. One day she is building her studio, breaking up pallets, wielding power tools, laying the hedge and the next making delicate porcelain vases and creating a website.
‘Make It at Market’ is a must watch to see the career journey of Pip and other creatives.
www.philippawhiteside.com
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