Jude Wensley

Role

Jude Wensley is Course Leader for the Decorative Arts whose own specialism is ceramics and drawing. She has taught ceramics for over 40 years and has a wide range of knowledge and expertise in this area.

Jude and her husband, Doug Wensley, jointly share a workshop in Papplewick where they make one off ceramic work for special projects. She has exhibited her ceramics and drawing at galleries and shops in the UK. Her work has been selected for Earth and Fire and other specialist ceramic markets.

Drawing is a particular interest. She continues to use sketchbooks to log ‘objects’ and ‘place’ and two dimensional works which make reference to  ceramic history.

Jude teaches ceramic practice workshops comprising mould making, slab building, coiling and wheel work, across all three years. Her experience of drawing and multi materials on the course has enabled her to support students using a wide range of materials.

Career overview

Prior to her half post appointment in 1995 Jude taught in a number of further education establishments in Nottinghamshire. Alongside this she was also a visiting lecturer at Loughborough University, School of Art and Design delivering both practice based and contextual session, and Staffordshire University on the MA History of Ceramics programme. She has also been MA supervisor on the Contemporary Craft course at NTU.

She was awarded a research scholarship by Staffordshire University in 1999 to study the ceramic collecting activity of the Earl’s of Bradford at Weston Park. Her thesis Ceramics and the Earls of Bradford 1762-1915. A Case Study of Database Analysis and its Value to the Ceramic Historian catalogued and evaluated the importance of ceramic artefacts in this stately home.

External activity

Jude has been involved in the Hothouse Programme run by the Crafts Council. She has frequently been on the selection panel and mentored many Hothouse Participants.