Jack Doherty was born in Co Derry. He studied at the Ulster College of Art and Design in Belfast wanting to be a painter, but after a visit to Lucie Rie’s studio he decided he wanted to make pots for a living. On graduating he worked at Kilkenny Design Workshops before establishing his first studio in Co Armagh and then relocated to Herefordshire. From 2008 – 2013 Jack was the first Lead Potter and Creative Director at the refurbished Leach Pottery in St Ives, Cornwall where he established the production studio and designed a contemporary domestic range of soda-fired tableware.
Designing and making have shaped his life. As a potter and ceramic artist he has gained an international reputation exhibiting extensively in the UK and abroad. Jack works with one clay body, one mineral and one single firing technique. Through this singleness of process he is able to obtain a complex, multi-layering of surface texture and colour, whilst remaining true to the form. His ceramic vessels are represented in many public collections including the Irish Contemporary Ceramics Collection at the Hunt Museum, Limerick, the National Museum of Ireland and the Ulster Museum. In 2016 he received the Janet Mansfield Memorial Award in recognition of his work with soda-fired porcelain. He currently works independently from his home studio in Cornwall and is resident potter at the Newlyn School of Art where he fire his gas kiln.
