Kaytea Budd-Brophy

About Kaytea

With a background in Textile Design, over 20 years’ experience teaching Textiles and Fashion in Further and Higher Education, and training in person-centred counselling, my creative practice is rooted in a longstanding curiosity about the human condition and the stories we carry.

I am interested in the experiences that shape us: moments of celebration and disappointment, the scars we accumulate, the things that unsettle us, and the resilience we develop in response. My work explores the relationship between vulnerability and strength, stability and disruption, and the possibilities that emerge through imperfection, repair and change.

Working primarily with porcelain, I create sculptural forms through throwing, cutting, dissecting, shifting and reconstructing. I am drawn to vessels that carry a sense of history and familiarity, and interested in what happens when their established structures are disrupted. My work explores what survives transformation: what is retained, what is changed and what becomes possible through reconstruction.

My background in textiles informs my sensitivity to surface, pattern, colour and mark-making, while my counselling training brings an awareness of the complex and often contradictory nature of human experience. Mental health and disruptive thinking are recurring influences in my work, particularly the ways in which fleeting thoughts can develop into powerful forces that shape our perceptions, behaviours and relationships.

Humour also has a place in my practice. It offers moments of lightness and recognition, creating opportunities for connection without diminishing the more difficult aspects of life.

Alongside my artistic practice, I am a Senior Manager at Leaders Unlocked, where I lead programmes that support young people to conduct peer-led research, share their lived experiences and work with organisations to influence decisions that affect their lives. This work reflects my wider commitment to listening, understanding different perspectives and recognising the value of individual experience.

I recently graduated from the City Lit Diploma in Ceramics, where I explored throwing, hand-building, surface decoration and experimental processes. In 2025, I was awarded the BCB Fresh Talent Prize for my ceramic practice.

For me, clay is both material and metaphor: something that can be shaped, fractured, reconfigured and transformed. I embrace the traces left by these processes, exploring how disruption can create new possibilities and how beauty can be found in the breaks.