Gabi Wearing, Crafter and Creator

From Engineering to Earthenware: Gabi Wearing's Lifelong Love Affair with Clay

Gabi Wearing has been working with clay since 1986, and nearly four decades on, it still gives her the same feeling. "It makes me feel grounded, centered and creative," she says. Trading as Gabi Wearing Pottery, she'll be bringing her wheel-thrown and hand-built work to the Crafted Clay Market on 4 October 2026.

Gabi loved painting as a child, and clay eventually became her way of carrying that love of colour into something she could hold in her hands. Her pieces are made using majolica, a decoration technique known for bright, painterly glazes, and her love of gardening and animals shows up in almost everything she makes.

Her range is wide and a little unexpected. Alongside mugs and bowls, she makes Olla watering pots, hanging planters for orchids and succulents, dog water bowls, fermenting crocks, Christmas ornaments and fridge or fence magnets. One of her favourite pieces started in her own backyard: the black and red cockatoos that visit the trees near her garden inspired a 3D-printed cockatoo cookie cutter, now made into a fridge magnet.

Creating on her own terms

Before pottery, Gabi spent her career as a mechanical engineer. She's retired now, and pottery fits into her days on its own terms rather than a set schedule. "It is more of a what do I feel like doing today," she says, whether that's filling a special order, making Christmas gifts for family, or following one of the many ideas she gets from sketching. She's clear that she wants to keep it this way. Turning pottery into a full-time income, she says, would mean working the wheel from 7am to 5pm every day, raising her prices, and doing far more markets or selling through shops that take a large commission. For Gabi, that's not a trade worth making.

Support Sustainable

Sustainability is part of how she works, without much fuss made of it. She recycles all of her clay, something she points out most serious potters do, especially with clay prices as high as they are. She fills her kiln as full as possible to make the most of the power it uses, and rarely throws a fired piece away. If something doesn't meet her own standard, she gifts it or drops the price heavily. She's even run a seconds table with a sign that just said "make an offer," rather than see the work end up in the bin.

Community Connection at it's Core

Some of her best memories come from a week of wheel-throwing classes she took while living in Germany, with mostly the same group returning each time. It was a week of throwing, trimming, raku firing, shared meals, a bit of wine in the evenings and a lot of laughing. She made close friends there and still misses them.

That same sense of community keeps drawing her to the Crafted Clay Market. "I now always like the vibe at the Crafted Clay Market," she says. She talks about the small moment of watching someone pick up one of her pieces and smile at a dog or chicken decoration. "It shows me that my work is liked and appreciated, and that is all I require." She's just as happy talking with other stallholders about technique or market experiences. "It is just so uplifting to share," she adds, and has good things to say about how well the market is run and how lovely the staff are.

Join Gabi and her creations at Crafted Clay

Her plans for the future are simple. Stay healthy, keep making pots, and enjoy what she's doing. As she puts it, she just wants to "live a happy life grounded in clay."

You can find Gabi Wearing Pottery's colourful, nature-inspired work at the Crafted Clay Market on 4 October 2026, and follow her on Instagram at @gabi.wearing.