The potter

Anne Luckins

I'm a handbuilder — I've never worked at a wheel. Every piece I make is built by hand, through pinching, coiling, and slab work, which means the forms I create carry the marks of how they were made. I like that.

My work is experimental and nature-driven. The textures of bark, stone, lichen, and shoreline find their way into the clay. I'm less interested in making perfect vessels than in making honest ones — objects that feel like they've come from somewhere.

That somewhere is Ballasalla, in the south of the Isle of Man. My studio is in a house called Always — and that name has a history worth knowing.

Always was built by the Simcocks family, who played a central role in establishing the celebrated Rushen Abbey and Gardens Limited in the early twentieth century. From 1930 into the 1980s, Always was their family home, sitting above the Abbey gardens. The house was later renamed Nookery Hill, but I've chosen to bring back its original name — it felt right for a place where something is always being made.

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