Nichola Gensler creates functional tableware under the name Burnt Crust Pottery. She began working in ceramics 8 years ago after almost 20 years in the food industry. She has a studio in Persistence Works, central Sheffield run by Yorkshire Artspace.

After her career in food, which culminated in setting up and running an artisan bakery in South-East London, Nichola was initially drawn to making wheel-thrown tableware. This felt like a natural transition as pottery and baking share many similar processes, such as systematic working, a love of repetition and working with the hands.

In more recent times, alongside the functional tableware, she has been exploring a slower, more considered approach. Working on individual pieces, she uses springs to cut through clay, before this is stretched into textured slabs. These slabs are then used to hand-build various forms such as platters, baskets, bottles and bowls. Sometimes there is a clear idea of what she plans to make, and at others she is guided by the material with a more intuitive approach. The aim is always to make something that is of use, something that feels good in the hand, that functions as it should, but also to explore texture, and push what clay as a medium can do.

Clay can be spun on a fast-moving wheel, it can be stretched, made into slips, squished and pushed, then baked hard, capturing the memories of movement. In the spring-cut pieces she aims to explore many of these characteristics, that in her tableware are often tidied up.

Nichola has developed a palette of glazes, with a focus on carbon-trap shinos, and incorporates clays dug from various locations around Sheffield. She fires most of her work in a gas kiln, and occasional pieces in a wood kiln in the Peak District.