Elissa Palser Biography
Elissa Palser was born in Hemel Hempstead in 1967 and brought up by two artists. Her mother, Alice Palser, after training in painting and sculpture started to work sculpturally in ceramics. Since Alice's studio was in their garden, Elissa used clay every day as a child and learnt lots of hand-building techniques at her mother's knee. Having watched her parents struggle financially as artists she was determined to work in the voluntary sector and study academically in London. Throughout this time, however, she continued to produce art for her own pleasure.
Elissa moved to Suffolk in 1999 and started working alongside her mother in her Suffolk Studio, learning more about glazing and firing techniques. In recent years she has been particularly interested in drawing animals, which have influenced her most recent work.
Each bird is made individually by hand, starting with the basic shape in a press mould, then adding the wings, beak and tail individually. They are biscuit fired and then glazed with a white stoneware glaze, hand decorated with additional oxides and colours and fired to stoneware.