Crocodile - stoneware candle holder by Anne Wagstaff

This crocodile candleholder by Anne Wagstaff is a handbuilt stoneware ceramic piece with three candleholders along his back. The ceramic crocodile candleholder measures 31cm long, 5cm wide and 7cm high.

Anne started academic life as a zoologist, having been ‘good at sciences’ at school. She moved into the world of accountancy for much of her career and is now a potter.

Working with ceramics is a wonderful blend of science and art. There are many points in the process at which a pot can go wrong - cracking during drying, exploding during firing, the glaze not fitting; the list is almost endless. Those are mostly solvable through the application of science. A pot can also go ‘wrong’ because it simply doesn’t please the eye - the shape can be top heavy, a handle can be beautiful but wrong for the pot. Again, the list could be endless. However, the joy in a pot that works aesthetically and that has survived the brutal ceramic processes is a deep pleasure that makes the pursuit of ceramics such a pleasurable chase.

Feeling, like many potters, that there is a lifetime of experimentation ahead of her, Anne particularly enjoys the experimental intrigue of clay. The scientist is never far below the surface.

Anne works in her garden studio in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Find out more about Anne on her Instagram profile.