Meet The Team

Co-Owner and Teacher
Chantelle Duncan
Chantelle Duncan is a ceramic artist based in St Leonards on Sea, where she co-runs The Mudworks. Growing up around ceramicists in Scotland, she honed her pottery skills at Romilly Graham’s studio in London, whilst pursuing a successful career as a musician.
In 2021 she seized the opportunity to expand her artistic aspirations, opening a ceramic studio where she was able to take a step further into the practice and embrace her love of clay.
Drawing on her experience as an improvisational musician, Chantelle seeks to capture creative spontaneity in her work.
A dedicated wheel thrower, she experiments with both large and small forms, blending vibrant colours, intricate designs and textures.
Her work reflects a sense of fun, adventure and melancholy; from bright coloured slip designs to moody, mountainous landscapes.

Co-Owner and Teacher
Isabella Campi
Isabella Campi grew up in Florence, surrounded by art and design, which led her to study graphic design. Her career led Isabella to London, where she worked in publishing as an illustrator and art editor.
Isabella loved the fast-paced creative environment, bringing ideas and stories to life for various magazines.
Over time, Isabella’s creative journey took a different path, leading to ceramics.
Drawn to simplicity and functionality, her work focuses on clean lines, soft tones, and timeless forms. For Isabella, ceramics is a natural evolution of her design background - combining elegance and utility in a way that brings beauty to everyday life.
Now, as co-owner of The Mudworks, she’s fully embraced life as a ceramicist. At the studio, Isabella designs and crafts handmade pieces while continuing to explore how form and function connect. It’s an amazing creative space where she get to share her passion for ceramics with others.

Teacher
Sara Lee
Sara lives in rural Sussex and recently graduated with first class honours, BA Hons Designer Maker degree at University Centre Hastings. Having spent over ten years as a painter at Rye Pottery. Working in a variety of mediums she is a narrative maker and responds to the environment around her both personally and from the wider world. Sara’s Pewter work has been selected and exhibited twice at the Victoria and Albert museum.
Sara Lee originally joined Rye Pottery straight from school in the early 90s and made a very welcome return when Josh & Tabby took over the business in 2013. Her lightness of touch and strategic, yet fundamentally creative approach instantly made her an invaluable part of the company.
"Alongside her role painting our Current Collections, Sara is key to our Design Development team and has been integral to the recent revival and reinterpretation of some of our celebrated Mid-Century decorations. She's thoughtful, passionate and articulate and loves the details that make our pots tick - so don't ask her about the differences between brushes or the qualities of a particular colour & expect a short answer. She's also an incredible teacher".
Soho House - Margaret Howell

Teacher
Esme Fisher
Esme works from The Mudworks and her garden studio in St Leonards creating contemporary clay pieces inspired by ancient vessels and architecture.
She began working with clay in 2020 and has since shown her work in Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, Towner Ceramics Fair and M-UP Gallery. In 2024 Esme collaborated with Nuremberg-based ethical homeware brand Collective Stories to create a limited-edition collection of handmade pieces which is now sold internationally.
Her approach to ceramics highlights the material, hand building with textured and heavily grogged clay - experimenting with what is possible with the natural clay body - sometimes mixing different coloured clays together and using raw, textured and burnished finishes.
Previously working with St Leonards’ festival ATownExploresABook as an arts facilitator and community project coordinator, she is passionate about making the arts accessible and engaging to the local community through the medium of clay!
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Studio Assistant
Lize McCaron
A creative at heart and a storyteller through visuals, Lize is a potter and photographer with a passion for capturing beauty in every form. Her parents both were artists and from an early age she made art with her mother in ceramics and her father who was a model maker.
Having been brought up in an artistic household, Lize enrolled at Chelsea School of Art and then continued with a degree in fine art at Winchester School of Art, specialising in sculpture.
Learning and using different mediums, Lize’s journey has taken her across the globe, enriching her perspective and inspiring her craft. She brings a deep understanding of form, colour, and texture to everything she creates, whether working with clay or the lens.
Her love for African and Asian pottery continues to fascinate her and she now works at the Mudworks in St Leonard’s as well as her home studio.