Will Illsley

A 5.5 in porcelain vase by Will Illsley
38A St.Peters Street, Stamford

I remember going home to see my parents in 1980 and in the Lincolnshire village where I was brought up a man had recently moved there, who made something called "studio pottery".

So Will Illsley was my first contact with this bizarre profession.

Here's a lidded pot in soda glaze

Hi this vase is 14" tall and hand thrown,  I am not 100% sure on the mark

The type of pot is typical of Will's work and he's funny that way in that when he stick a handle and a pouring lip on his vases he calls them jugs.

Will Illsley



Will trained at Loughborough College of Art and Leicester Polytechnic where he specialised in Furniture Design. He then taught Art and Design at Uppingham School for six years running their Design Centre.
He set up his first pottery studio in Seaton, just outside Uppingham in 1978 and also worked as part time lecturer in Ceramics at the College of FE in Melton Mowbray. 1982 saw a move to a much larger studio and workshop in Rippingale, Lincolnshire, and in 1987 he moved to Stamford with his wife Chris and their two young children.
Torkington House on St.Peter\'s Street proved an ideal location in which to open a gallery and sell other artists work alongside their own and provide generous workspace for them both. Torkington Gallery supported a growing number of artists, and numerous exhibitions and workshops took place over the following 10 years.
Will has regularly taken part in exhibitions regionally and nationally over the last thirty years. He was a selected member of the Anglian Potters Association, and also Chairman of the Lincolnshire and Humberside Arts Association for several years.
Will\'s sculptures can probably best be described as semi-abstract, containing suggestions of figurative or organic elements. Ideas come from a wide range of sources include African and Oceanic art, bones, bodies, fossils, shells and stones.

HI
I MAY have seen this mark in one of the posts on here but can't be sure. Rather like a trident but could be a form of W. Hope I'm not being more foolish than usual and that it's very obvious !!  

 

I'm happy that we ( you) have identified the mark as Will Illsley.  However on the Winchcombe thread is this image



I can't believe how similar they are - except maybe for the dot/blob on the right and that the outside strokes of the W are slightly more splayed.

A man of many talents.

A recent quote from William: -

"It’s taken over 40 years for me to return to where it all started.
I went to art college in Loughborough in the late sixties, drawing painting and sculpting – after which I followed a course in design at Leicester College of Art.
Several years of teaching was followed by starting a pottery, then setting up a gallery in Stamford. Many thousands of pots later, I finally wound up the pottery in 2005, and returned to sculpture and painting."

Thanks in advance for your help!

Will Illsley?

Yes, with lid missing.

https://www.rutlandopenstudios.co.uk/gallery_761515.html