Norah Braden (1901 – 2001) was a British artisan potter.

Life

Braden was born in 1901 in Margate. Her parents were Jessie Norwood (born Arnold) and John Templeton Braden who dealt in stationary. She showed early musical and artistic talent and she excelled on the violin. She could have gone to the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

but she decided instead to go to Central School of Arts and Crafts. Her father had a bookshop and he was a lay preacher and they were not rich. She went on to the Royal College of Art where she decided that she should abandon fine art and concentrate on pottery for financial reasons. She started a life-long friendship with the designer Enid Marx (who became very successful after failing the course). It was Braden who introduced her to

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and

Dorothy Larcher Dorothy Larcher (1884–1952) was an English designer of textiles, known for the printing workshops she shared with Phyllis Barron in Hampstead (1923–1930) and Painswick, Gloucestershire (1930–1940). Early life and education Dorothy Larch ...

and Marx became an apprentice handblock textile printer. In 1925, Braden joined Bernard Leach's pottery in St. Ives after Sir

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

recommended her as "a genius". Fellow apprentice artisans at the

Leach Pottery The Leach Pottery was founded in 1920 by Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada in St Ives, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. The buildings grew from an old cow / tin-ore shed in the 19th century to a pottery in the 1920s with the addition of a two-stor ...

around that time were

Michael Cardew Michael Ambrose Cardew (1901–1983), was an English studio potter who worked in West Africa for twenty years. Early life Cardew was born in Wimbledon, London, the fourth child of Arthur Cardew, a civil servant, and Alexandra Kitchin, the elde ...

Shoji Hamada A is a door, window or room divider used in traditional Japanese architecture, consisting of translucent (or transparent) sheets on a lattice frame. Where light transmission is not needed, the similar but opaque ''fusuma'' is used (oshiire ...

Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie Katherine (sometimes known as Katharine) Harriot Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie (7 June 1895 – 1985) was a pioneer in modern English studio pottery, known for her wood-ash glazes. Biography Pleydell-Bouverie was born into an aristocratic family a ...

and the Japanese artisan kiln builder Tsuronosuke Matsubayashi. In 1925, Pleydell-Bouverie started her first pottery with a wood-fired kiln in the grounds of her family estate at Coleshill. Braden joined her there and they had an intimate relationship. They used ash glazes, prepared from wood and home grown vegetables. Tsurunosuke Matsubayashi, had built a two chambered, wood fired, kiln there. The kiln would only be used a few times a year as it used two tonnes of timber to fire it for the 36 hours required. Whilst the kiln was being fired the potters had to watch it around the clock in makeshift beds to obtain the long slow firing they desired. Braden had to leave to care for her mother after eight years but she would return for holidays to Coleshill. She would teach at Camberwell College of Arts and the

University of Brighton School of Art Founded as the Brighton School of Art in 1859, the University of Brighton School of Art and Media is an organisational part of the University of Brighton, with courses in the creative arts, visual communication, media, craft and fashion and textil ...

until she retired in 1957. She had

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and hands are involv ...

and she was known for being reclusive. She had to join a retirement home in 1994 and visitors were surprised to find that she had a collection of unknown finished pots. She died in 2001 in Bosham in Sussex. The Victoria and Albert have a collection of her pots from the 1930s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Braden, Norah British women 1901 births 2001 deaths People from Margate Alumni of the Royal College of Art British artisans