In an age when headlines feature new man-made materials, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, with high-spec technical advantages, the exhibition Elemental Conversations: Margaret O’Rorke and Beverley Bell-Hughes at Contemporary Ceramics Centre, London, offered a concrete example of how the most traditional material, clay, can still be explored and exploited, in this case, aesthetically. As Geoffrey Crossick, the new Chair of the Crafts Council (UK) has said, “Makers have an understanding of materials and imaginatively push their boundaries in ways that technologists can’t.”