When I first saw Chris's ceramics, I was struck by how they balance the tactile, handmade feel with a real refinement. They're beautiful, mindful pieces to use, and wonderfully functional too.
Each piece is thrown and finished by hand using carefully sourced, high-quality materials, resulting in pottery that feels both grounded and considered.
From office job to potter’s wheel
After years working in office jobs in Edinburgh, Chris began to feel the pull to return to making things with his hands. He had originally studied sculpture at Edinburgh College of Art, so it wasn’t a great leap for him to start experimenting again with creative projects - this time turning his attention to pottery.
Early on, Chris tried everything from pit firing to building a makeshift wood-fired kiln. At one point he even tried firing pots in the barbecue - the kind of trial-and-error experimentation well known to many creatives finding their craft. Eventually he bought his first kick wheel and kiln on Gumtree and taught himself much of the process through persistence, curiosity, and a lot of practice.
Handmade pottery in Ayrshire
Ceramicist Chris Viviani is the maker behind Clod & Pebble, a small studio producing handmade ceramic homeware from a farm in the hills of Ayrshire.
Watching Chris share glimpses of his process on Instagram offers a wonderful insight into the rhythm of a potter’s daily life - clay, kiln, and the quiet satisfaction of shaping something beautiful and useful by hand.