Moneyvart Ceramics

Moneyvart Ceramics is the home studio of Denise McAuley, a trauma coordinator with the Belfast Health Trust who took up clay after evening classes at the University of Ulster in 2017. She works wheel-thrown and hand-built pieces in small batches, drawing on the coastline between Belfast Lough and the Glens of Antrim for glaze colour and surface texture; a recent series of ceramic bottles referencing burnout and vulnerability in nursing was selected for the Royal Ulster Academy exhibition. The studio, based in Jordanstown, is open by appointment rather than to passing trade, and Denise takes bookings for private wheel-throwing sessions and demonstrations alongside commissions. The name Moneyvart comes from a townland near Cushendall that translates as hill of the miracle.