The ceramicist Rupert Spira has made a conscious decision to get away from it all. His home, a 16th-century farmhouse outside a small village in the Welsh borders, is about as rural as you can get without heading off-road. “My wife, Caroline, and I used to live in Hampshire, but we didn’t want to be in the commuter belt any more,” says Spira. “We wanted somewhere remote and quiet, and to feel way out in the country.”
The stone and timber building they now call home had stood empty for 10 years, fulfilling his desire for isolation perfectly. “Although there’s no direct reference to my environment in my work, I like living and working in the countryside — here it is incredibly beautiful.”
Apart from occasional trips abroad accompanying exhibitions of his avidly collected work, Spira’s life and work now centre on the old farm — his pottery is housed in one of the outbuildings and the business is run by Caroline.
The rich texture of the original flagstone and wooden floors and the unadorned plaster walls have become a raw backdrop to a few well-chosen bits of rustic furniture and pottery. Spira’s collection of ceramics ranges from pieces bought in China and Japan to designs by his mentor, Michael Cardew, with whom he worked as an apprentice 25 years ago.
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“The house is spare and empty in some ways,” Spira says, “but there is also great attention to tiny details. I’m fantastically fussy, so I’m told, and that infiltrates many areas of my life.”
That attention to detail is a trademark of Spira’s work. He has just completed some new pieces, currently on show at Collect 2006 at the Victoria and Albert Museum. He is also in the process of resurrecting a limited range of tableware, as well as focusing on private commissions.
His pieces are in constant demand and increasingly fashionable. Spira himself, however, adopts a considered, intellectual approach to his work — well beyond the vagaries of fashion.
“What really interests me is the power and potency an object can have, and exploring the nature of beauty,” he says. “The forms and shapes I use evolve all the time, but that’s really why I started in the first place.”