Beatrice Wood

Wood took up pottery in her forties after a youth among the Dada artists of New York, and became famous for lustre glazes: iridescent surfaces in gold, copper and violet that change colour as you walk round a bowl or chalice. She admitted her throwing was wobbly and turned that into charm, alongside cheeky figurative pieces that mock respectable society. She studied with Glen Lukens and with Gertrud and Otto Natzler, and worked in her studio at Ojai, California, until shortly before her death at 105 in 1998.