Polly Yates is a British artist and maker, recently transplanted to Suffolk from the United States. Her main focus is in hand-building vessels which are both sculptural and functional, playful and elegant.

Working mainly with stoneware, she employs the simplest methods of coiling and pinching to create a wide variety of forms, some more traditional, some more experimental. Each piece is entirely unique. Influenced by time spent in Japan, Polly builds delicate, thin-walled forms and works within a limited palette of whites and off-whites.

Fascinated by the ways we live and how we shape our domestic space, she makes objects to elevate the everyday.

Polly also has a drawing practice that runs alongside her work with clay. In both practices, a curiosity about process is central. When drawing, Polly rolls the pencil in her fingers to create a line that quivers. Just as a pot is formed by building up lines of clay, Polly builds her drawings slowly line by line, moving loosely in soft curves and arcs that are reflected in her vessels.