Lorraine Bates’s work at Woodsetton Art Pottery is rooted in the traditional Black Country techniques of hand metal working with echoes from the ceramics of the Arts and crafts era. The stoneware and porcelain clays are formed using techniques of throwing, hand- building and casting to make pieces with a use, whilst the long kiln firings ensure that each glaze effect is unique.
Lorraine trained at Bath Academy of Art, studying under, John Colbeck, Eduardo Paolozzi, John Ford, Les Sharpe, Jill Radford, Elizabeth Frayling, and visiting lecturers John Leach, Michael Casson, Andrew McGarva, Felicity Aylieff, Sasha Wardell, Joanna Costantinidis.
She spent 8 years working in The Potteries in Stoke on Trent before setting up a studio alongside her family’s firm of pewterers in Woodsetton.
She regularly exhibits work and is a past chairperson of The Midlands Potters Association.