Fournier, Sheila

First name: 
Sheila
Initials: 
S.
Surname: 
Fournier
Year of birth: 
1930
Country of birth: 
Great Brittain
Working period: 
1961-1987
Year of death: 
2000
CV: 

Sheila Fournier married Robert Charles Privet Fournier in 1961. She was trained as a teacher at Goldsmiths College (1949-1950), and they moved to Greenwich in London. Robert taught Sheila to pot and they continued potting together in Greenwich, Kent and eventually at Lacock (1971-1987). She has variously worked in thrown and hand-built earthenware, stoneware and porcelain, making tableware and decorative items. Sheila Fournier also produced individual pieces mainly in oxidised stoneware and porcelain. Jointly they have made a number of films with John Anderson, including: Creatures In Clay, David Leach and Raku, English Style. She is known for her more delicate porcelain pieces with shapes and decorative motifs reminiscent of Art Nouveau. There are also handbuilt stoneware bowls that suggest an organic origin with layered petal-like forms. Sheila's work has been exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She retired from potting in 1987 but continued to write in conjunction with her husband, Robert. They set up the archive of the Craft Potters Association, which formed the basis of the Ceramic Archive at Aberystwyth. Sheila Fournier died in late 2000 (text Studio Pottery.com).

See also Robert Fournier