About Ceramic Artist Katja Seaton
Katja Seaton creates richly ornamental ceramic works that celebrate overlooked “little lives”, using beauty, humour and craft to reveal the darker narratives that often lie beneath seductive surfaces.
Biography
Katja Seaton is a ceramic artist based in Hastings, East Sussex. She studied ceramics and metalwork at Camberwell College of Arts before moving to New York, where she undertook an apprenticeship at the renowned Cupcake Café, learning the meticulous craft of piping buttercream.
For more than two decades she worked as a cake designer, developing a highly refined decorative language rooted in precision, ornament and celebration. Seeking to explore ideas beyond confectionery, she later returned to study, completing an MA in Textile Design at University of Brighton, where she experimented with materials such as silicone and began translating her decorative techniques into a broader artistic practice.
Her return to clay came unexpectedly through time spent in the ceramic studio she shares with her husband. Since establishing a studio together in Hastings, she has been developing a body of sculptural ceramic work that draws on both traditional ceramic processes and the decorative expertise developed throughout her career.
Practice & Process
Katja works primarily with hand-built clay, developing forms through processes such as coiling, piping and sculptural hand building. These methods allow surfaces to grow gradually through the careful accumulation of texture and ornament.
Colour and surface are developed through layers of underglazes, glazes and oxides, which settle into the textured clay surface and create subtle variations in tone and depth.
Her background in cake decoration continues to inform the work technically. Techniques of piping, layering and intricate surface building translate naturally into clay, where decorative structures can spread across the vessel like colonies or organic growths.
Artist Statement
Katja’s work explores the fragile balance between attraction and unease. She is drawn to glamour, colour and sparkle, the visual language nature itself uses to attract attention. Beauty becomes a point of entry, inviting the viewer to look closely. Yet beneath these seductive surfaces the work often reveals something more ambiguous or unsettling.
Central to the practice is an attention to what might be called “little lives”: small creatures, marginal presences and beings, animal or human, who exist quietly at the edges of our attention. Katja is particularly affected by the traces of life that appear in the margins of everyday movement: a small bird at the roadside, an insect on a path, creatures whose lives have ended without witness.
Through ornament, humour and craft, the work seeks to acknowledge these overlooked lives. Beauty draws the viewer in, while closer observation reveals layers of complexity beneath the surface. In this way the vessels act as quiet gestures of recognition, inviting a moment of reflection on the lives and systems that so often pass unseen.
Exhibitions
Katja’s work has been exhibited in galleries and exhibition spaces across Sussex and the South East. Recent exhibitions include Efflorescence at the Marine Workshops BN9 Studio in Newhaven (2026), Rye Art Gallery, and the Observer Building in Hastings (2024).
Exhibiting in these spaces has provided opportunities to present the work alongside other artists and to engage directly with visitors. Conversations with audiences form an important part of the process, offering moments to share the ideas and observations that inform the work.
Other notable past exhibitions include-
2026 - Net Shop Gallery Space , The Yard Hastings,
2026 - Efflorescence BN9 Studio, Newhaven
2025 - Artist Residency and Exhibition, Lury, Hastings (Michelin Guide listed)
2025 - HAF Summer Members Show, Hastings
2024 - Duality Sussex Open Contemporary, The Marine Workshops, Newhaven
2024 - Art in The Dock, Artwave Festival, Firle, East Sussex
2024 - We Are Family, Electro Studios Project Space, St Leonards
2024 - Conception, Observer Building Hastings
2023 - An Other Exhibition In A Different Building, 40 Norman Rd, St Leonards
2020 - MA Textiles Graduation Show University of Brighton
2009 - One and Other, 4th Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London
2005 - Stockport College Staff exhibition, Stockport Art Gallery, Stockport
1996 - BA Joint Honours Ceramics and Metalwork Graduation Show Camberwell School of Art
Open Studios / Events
2025 - Coastal Currents Open Studios Hastings
2024 - Coastal Currents Open Studios Hastings
Inspired by nature's quiet persistence
Katja studied Ceramics and Metalwork at Camberwell School of Art, London (1996) before moving to New York, where she refined her skills in painting and sculpture at the Art Students League, Manhattan (1998). During this time, she worked at The Cupcake Café, mastering the art of piping and intricate decoration a technique that continues to shape her ceramic work today.
Katja also taught Art at colleges in the North West and the South East. Her creative exploration led her to an MA in Textiles at the University of Brighton (2020), where she experimented with silicone, mould-making, and casting. This process ultimately brought her back to ceramics.
"Each piece is a journey, a reflection of nature's delicate balance and the beauty in imperfection."
Leah Hannon
C.V.
Education
MA Textile Design, University of Brighton — Merit, 2020
Certificate in Education, UCLAN, 2004
BA (Hons) Visual Arts (Ceramics & Metalwork) Camberwell School of Art, 1996
Access to Art & Design, College of North West London, 1992
Awards & Recognition
Great Taste Award - Gold
Cake International - Silver
Northwest Fine Foods- Heart of Excellence
The Big Draw – Whatmore Trust Award
Professional Practice
Founder & Ceramic Artist — Katja Seaton Ceramics, Hastings (2023–present)