YO Thom, one of the country’s leading ceramicists, is exhibiting alongside well-known Dorset print-maker Liz Somerville at The Art Stable, the contemporary gallery at Gold Hill Organic Farm, Child Okeford, until 24th October.

Originally from Japan – a heritage which is inherent in her beautiful ceramics – Yo Thom has lived in North Dorset for many years. Her work at The Art Stable is collectively called Tsumugu, which literally means “to spin” or “to make yarn/thread.” Figuratively, it is widely used to mean “to weave” or “to create/put together” abstract things like stories, words, or relationships.

Born in Tokyo, Yo came to England in 1996 to study 3D design at the Kent Institute of Art and Design, specialising later in ceramics. She set up her first studio in Deptford, London, in 2004 producing stoneware and porcelain tableware and some wood-fired pieces. She moved to Dorset in 2009 and has exhibited widely in the UK and Europe ever since. Yo is an elected member of the Craft Potters Association.

She says: “I have lived my life in two very different countries, both of which I think of as home – Japan and Britain. In my work I strive to combine the cultures and traditions of both those cultures.

“I like working with clay because it is such a primitive form of human creativity. I’m especially intrigued by the markings and motifs that previous creators have left on the surface of their clay work. They represent people’s lifestyles, surrounding nature and their beliefs.”

A regular and popular exhibitor at The Art Stable, Liz Somerville is once again exploring the Dorset landscape with its many hill forts, with their distinctive lines, in a collection called Rhythm of the Hills.

But while the exhibition is about hills, she says, it is also about “the trees that grow on them, the water that comes from them and the ground that forms them.

“West Dorset is a peculiar and particular part of the county – a quieter, slower, folk-lorey sort of place. I have chosen three subjects and worked my way around and into them, hence the inclusion of preliminary drawings. The first, Floating Oaks, are the trees (mostly oaks) that grow around Eggardon near Bridport. The second, Loscombe, centres on Lower Loscombe Farm and its relationship with the hill, Penwell, where the water for the farm used to come from a well on top of it. The final subject are the hills surrounding Loscombe, Hinknowle and Poorton – dictated by geology and weather, these unusual forms are stranger than any imagination.

Pictured: A selection of Yo Thom’s bowls; Liz Somerville, Hills Between, hand coloured woodcut,