Cotswold Pottery’s Jude Jelfs reveals some of the treats in store at this weekend’s Oxford Ceramics Fair

Why do people love, buy, collect ceramics? Perhaps because in our digital world, using, handling and, looking at pots and ceramic objects has the potential to reconnect us.

Making things from clay is one of the oldest crafts still being practised, and there are pots around today made thousands of years ago.

It is this potential for permanence that is one of the appealing aspects of buying and collecting ceramics and the Oxford Ceramics Fair this weekend promises a wide range of stunning, affordable ceramic art and pottery from its 70 odd exhibitors.

The fair is now in its 19th year, and is moving to a new venue within St Edwards School – the sports hall on the other side of Woodstock Road .

Exhibitors include Korean potter Hwa Jeong Han, who is travelling from Korea especially for the event. Hwa Jeong aims to express the beautiful integration of mathematics and art, using Pappus’ Chain theory for the inscribed circles on his intricate ceramic boxes.

Three local potters will be exhibiting this year. Dylan Bowen from Tackley, Rose Wallace and Gilles le Corre both from Oxford.

Dylan will show his new range of wheel-thrown and hand-built slipware, and Gilles his stoneware pieces using smooth and textured clay.

Rose’s work is a contemporary take on flatback traditional Staffordshire creamware using casts of contemporary packaging and discarded domestic ephemera which invites comment on our consumer society.

Gloucestershire-based potters John & Jude Jelfs will show their work alongside Dutch slipware potter Niek Hoogland, and French ceramist Francoise Dufayard.

Midori Takaki from Canterbury makes witty figurative sculpture inspired by stories, nature and her daily life. Midori, originally from Japan, will also give a demonstration entitled “Making the Invisible Visible” on Sunday afternoon.

Two UK-based Japanese potters, Akiko Hirai from London and Taja from Devon, will be showing their wares. Akiko is known for her large jars with beautiful, volcanic-like surfaces, while Taja works in porcelain with blue and green glazes.

Katharina Klug from Cambridge also works in porcelain and will give a demonstration on the potters’ wheel on Saturday – her pieces are all about shape, colour and pattern.

Norfolk-based Stephen Parry’s wood-fired pots are softly thrown on a momentum wheel, using stoneware and porcelain clay, glazed with wood ash.

Svend Bayer from Devon makes a range of tableware for the famous David Mellor shops. Other Goldmark exhibitors at the show are Jim Malone from Cumbria and Lisa Hammond from London.

The Oxford Ceramics Fair Saturday and Sunday, The Sports Hall, St Edward’s School, north Oxford

oxfordceramicsfair.co.uk