Ellie is originally from Cumbria and studied Fine Art at Liverpool John Moore’s University, graduating in 2018. She moved to Cornwall and started an apprenticeship at The Leach Pottery in July 2021, joining the Studio alongside a highly skilled team of production potters, learning the craft of making Leach Standard Ware.

As well as working on Standard Ware, Ellie has made a large body of individual work. Her first solo graduation show, ‘Ellie Woods: An Apprenticeship’ was presented in The Leach Pottery Shop Gallery in the summer of 2024, and later as an Online Exhibition.

Utility is the leading element of Ellie’s work:
“I like the intimacy of creating work that is going to be used, for example a mug for someone’s morning coffee. I am playing with slip underneath glazes to add texture and decoration to the pots. Some slips are watered down clay, others I have mixed from powdered clays and added colouring oxides. All with the hope of creating an individual style in combination with using the traditional Leach Studio glazes”.

Ellie has been exploring wood-firing and the unique surfaces, colours and effects that result from it.

Exhibitions
Off The Rails, a joint show at Driving Creek New Zealand, 2025
TOAST and Leach Pottery: Beyond Tradition, a joint show in Notting Hill, London, 2025
The Leach Pottery: One & All, a joint show at The Leach Potter, 2025
Leach Studio: A Potter’s Challenge, a joint show at The Leach Pottery, 2024
Ellie Woods: An Apprenticeship, a solo show at The Leach Pottery, 2024
Leach Pottery: First Students, pot loaned to The Leach Pottery Museum, 2024
Studio_Space, a joint show at The Leach Pottery, 2022