Kate Hopkins-Searle was born in 1962 in Norwich.  She studied at Great Yarmouth College of Art and Design and Loughborough College of Art and Design graduating in 3-dimensional design in 1984. She exhibited and sold her ceramic work directly through a number of London outlets including Liberty of London, prior to beginning to teach art in secondary schools.  

In the late 1990s Kate worked for the costume department of the Sydney Opera, learning the craft of real shoe making, before moving back to the UK to set up her studio creating Glacé Slippers.

Kate has had a fascination with shoes from an early age. Whilst she has made other ceramic forms it is the shoe that embodies her passion. She loves the design constraints created by the shape and yet at the same time this allows her enormous scope for creativity and decoration.  Kate’s influences lie in her interest in historical highly decorative and ornamental costume, fashion and artefacts. The Rococo style has been a particular theme in the production of her luxury, inimitable, and collectable ceramic shoes.  

Kate’s style and method of production is unique and very precise.   She makes initial drawings on paper and in three dimensions before working the clay by hand into the desired shoe form and style.  She takes great care to produce highly detailed and defined pieces of ceramic art which entail many hours of work.  These stylish quality artworks demand a high level of skill in design, modelling and painting.