Blackman was born in London and raised in
Leatherhead in
Surrey by her parents,
Hilda, a sculptor and author, and Richard Seligman, a chemical engineer. After attending
Wimbledon High School in London, Blackman spent two years, from 1924, at a
Kunstgewerbeschule in
Graz in Austria before returning to England to study at
Goldsmiths College School of Art until 1930 and then at the
University of Reading from 1931 until 1935. Blackman initially worked in bronze to produce small group pieces and figures but after World War II began using terracotta and stoneware before concentrating on creating ceramic figures. Blackman was active in several bodies promoting arts and crafts including the International Academy of Ceramics, the Craft Advisory Committee and the Federation of British Craft Societies. Living in Boar's Hill near
Oxford, she married Geoffrey Blackman, the Sibthorpian professor of rural economy at
Oxford University, and she was long associated with that University's
St Cross College, where several examples of her sculpture and pottery are held and a room is named in her memory. ==References==