Inspired by the River Lune, Morecambe Bay and the beautiful Lake District I make unique contemporary handmade hand decorated Blue and White pieces using the sgraffito technique.
ABOUT SARAH LIVINGSTONE CERAMICS
I’m Sarah Livingstone, a Lancashire-based artist working in clay from my studio at Halton Mill beside the River Lune. My hand-carved sgraffito ceramics are inspired by Britain’s coastlines, estuaries and river landscapes — by birds crossing the sky, shifting weather, tidal edges and the quiet movement of water through a place.
Although clay is my medium, drawing sits at the heart of the work. Each piece begins with observation, memory and imagination: fragments of coastline, riverbank, weather, birds and found details gathered over time and reassembled into small imagined landscapes.
I make my work in small collections rather than large repeated ranges. No two pieces are exactly alike. Together they form a body of work rooted in place, atmosphere and the changing edges between land and water.
Thankyou for visiting my gallery
Sarah Livingstone
Returning to clay
Clay has been part of my life for many years, but this body of work grew from a return to making after breast cancer and a double mastectomy. I found myself drawn back to the quieter, more instinctive part of ceramics — drawing into clay by hand, and making pieces that felt personal, alive and closely connected to place.
That return changed the way I worked. Instead of making functional pottery, I became interested in creating ceramic pieces that behaved more like drawings or small works on paper: objects that could hold landscape, weather, birds, memory and movement in a single surface.
Sarah Livingstone Ceramics grew from that shift. What began as a return to clay became a collection of hand-carved sgraffito pieces inspired by coast, river, birds and the changing British landscape.
Coast, river and remembered landscapes
The sea has been a constant presence throughout my life and remains at the heart of my work. My inspiration comes from Britain’s coastlines, estuaries, rivers and the ever-changing relationship between land, water and sky.
I was born in Bristol, and because my father worked for the power industry our family moved several times during my childhood. One of the places that left the deepest impression on me was Cemlyn Bay on the north coast of Anglesey. We lived high above the sea, looking down over the coastline, and many of my earliest memories are of watching the waves, the weather and the seabirds. My favourite birds have always been gulls. Their distinctive calls are woven into those childhood memories of coastal life.
As children, my brother and I spent hours exploring beaches, searching for sea-washed treasure and peering into rock pools. Those early experiences left me with a lasting fascination for wildlife, landscape and the natural patterns found along Britain’s shores. Later, our family moved to New Romney in Kent, where the sea was never far away and the wide, open coastline became another part of my visual memory.
Today, I work from Halton Mill beside the River Lune in Lancashire, and that landscape shapes the work just as strongly as the coast. The river is a constant source of inspiration — its changing light, muddied banks, birds, reeds, winter branches, flowing water and shifting weather all find their way into the pieces I make. The River Lune and Britain’s coastline are not separate influences in my work; together they form the visual world that I keep returning to.
Rather than trying to record an exact place, I gather fragments from different landscapes and let them settle together in the work: remembered journeys, river walks, tidal edges, birds, weather and small found details that catch my eye outdoors. The resulting pieces are rooted in Britain’s coast and river landscapes, but they are not literal illustrations of a single view. They are assembled, drawn and carved by hand into small imagined worlds of their own.
The Blue and White Process
My ceramic journey began at the pottery wheel, and throwing remained a large part of my working life for many years. Alongside that, I was always drawn to drawing and surface. Over time I found myself wanting to combine those interests more directly, bringing line, illustration and clay together in a way that felt more natural to me.
Each piece begins as a slab of clay, carefully rolled out and shaped into a plaque, hanging or vessel form. A blue cobalt slip is brushed across the surface, and once it has dried to the right stage, I carve back through it by hand to reveal the pale clay beneath. This is the sgraffito process: drawing through the surface rather than adding decoration on top of it.
Using fine carving tools, I scratch into the cobalt to build up line, texture and contrast. The process allows me to create layered imagery — birds, fish, trees, currents, weather lines and small landscape details — while also giving the work a sense of movement and atmosphere. I often manipulate and shape the clay itself too, folding edges, altering the outline and adding subtle relief so the form becomes part of the image rather than simply a flat background.
One thing that never changes is my use of cobalt blue. Blue has long been my favourite colour, and I’m drawn to the timeless quality of traditional blue-and-white ceramics. The contrast between deep cobalt and pale clay gives me the perfect surface for line, texture and atmosphere to stand out.
Every piece is drawn and carved by hand. No two are exactly alike. Even when a work begins from a similar idea, the carving process means each one develops its own rhythm, detail and character.
​​
Creating Small Collections
I release my work in small collections rather than keeping a large catalogue permanently available. This allows each group of pieces to grow from a particular season, place or set of drawings, and gives me space to keep developing the work rather than repeating the same designs indefinitely.
Working in small collections also means each piece receives the time and attention it deserves. Some works are one-offs; others sit within a small family of related pieces, linked by a shared landscape, mood or set of motifs.
Past collections remain archived on the website once they have sold, creating a record of how the work evolves over time and of the places, weather, birds and journeys that have shaped it.