Ruth Mae Martin is a Scottish Ceramicist currently working and living in Glasgow. She received the Charlotte Fraser Scholarship to attend the Royal College of Art to study for an MA in Ceramics and Glass in 2020. Previously she attended Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art to study Illustration and Printmaking.

Her background in illustration has had a significant impact on the ceramic work she makes now, in that all her work is designed using paper collage techniques and then finally translated into clay. Colour has a large part to play in her work, and defining a colour palette for each collection is something she takes a great deal of joy in.

Martin’s practice is specifically focused on the symbiosis between people and their objects. She believes the objects we choose to surround ourselves with are a lens: they act as vessels for our memories, influence our thoughts and inform how we learn about the world.

Her work explores this by using objects autobiographically: each one visits a specific memory and point in her life. By arranging these objects, she is portraying herself at various moments in time, collaging the experiences that have formed how she experiences her environment.

Martin employs a unique visual language to produce objects that exist between function and ornamentally. These are made using slip-casting, press-moulding, and slab-building processes. She experiments with glaze to achieve finishes representing materials not usually associated with clay.