Laura Lane – The Gig Rowing Potter

You may have seen Laura’s beautiful mugs on our social media recently.  Keen to find out how gig rowing has inspired her creativity, we invited Laura to tell us more.

Hello, I’m Laura Lane and I’m a Potter.

I’ve been making pots full time since 2014 and before that I was market gardening at home on our smallholding in South East Cornwall with my husband and our 3 children. One Christmas I gave my husband Steve a Jamie Oliver cookbook & an apron and announced I was off to uni… poor chap!! I studied 3D Design, specialising in Ceramics and was lucky enough to be able to do an MA following on from the BA. It was a struggle with 3 quite small children but somehow we managed to make it work.

I mostly make wheel thrown stoneware pottery from a lovely Cornish stoneware clay from St Agnes, which I decorate with a blue slip and then scratch through my illustrations or designs which reveals the white clay body beneath before glazing and firing.

When I started out my designs were mostly inspired by Cornish folklore and over the last 10 years my inspiration tends to come more from my own daily life. Having always lived beside the sea there’s lots of nautical inspiration from fisherman and fish, to sea swimming and gig rowing, but also there’s some farming life too (now that I’m 7 miles away and land locked). We have some working horses which feature occasionally along with one of our cats Billy Bob. Really, it’s storytelling on clay for me. A bit like a journal with illustrations on 3d forms, which I’m lucky enough to have made into my business, plus lots of hard work and dry hands! 

I got into rowing a couple of years ago. I was taking my boys Felix & Monty to Fowey twice a week for junior training sessions with Jeremy Crapp and he took me out a few times in the pilot seat as a seagull – I mean why should the kids have all the fun? Jeremy, or to most, Jer, not only trains the juniors but also has a parents group who go out twice a week after juniors, I started rowing with them too. I’m not a great rower at all but I did a couple of novice races last summer which I really enjoyed. I didn’t realise I was quite so competitive…!

I really love rowing! I enjoy the fact it’s a team sport and there’s such a great community, the laughs and being on the sea as well.I know both my boys love it too, I’m just so happy I don’t have to stand beside a football pitch! 

I started making the Gig Rower Mugs to send over to Bryher Gallery on the Isles of Scilly, along with lots of other work. I already make Sea Swimmer Mugs in the same design and these have been on my mind for a while. They make a brilliant gift for the gig rower in your life.  

I’ve got a little shop in an old fisherman’s store in Polperro right on the harbour. This is where I sell my pottery along with work from other local artists, you are also more than welcome to check out my website www.lauralane.co.uk.

Happy rowing! 

Laura, the Gig Rowing Potter x