Janet Mansfield has been a potter for more than 35 years. After her training in ceramics at the National Art School. ESTC in 1964, 65, she has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas. She is represented in most major public collections in Australia and her work has appeared in many publications throughout the world.

She has been an invited participant in symposiums, conferences and as a juror in many countries. A member of the International Academy of Ceramics since 1982. She is currently vice-president.

Janet Mansfield has received a number of awards for ceramics including the 1986 Award of the Australian Ceramic Society. In 1987 she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her services to art, especially ceramics. In 1990 she received the Emeritus Award for art from the Australia Council. During the Ceramics Millennium Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, she was given the prestigious achievement award of the Ceramic Art Foundation, based in New York.

Lifetime achievement awards include The Friends of Contemporary Ceramics, 2003, International Ceramics Festival, UK, 2003, and the National Council for Education in the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) in 2004. In 2004 she was awarded a Doctor of Letters from the University of Tasmania.

She was editor of Pottery in Australia from 1976 to 1990 and is a past president of the Potters' Society of Australia, the Ceramic Study Group and the Crafts Council of NSW.

She has written a number of books on ceramics. She is publisher/editor of the journals Ceramics: Art and Perception and Ceramics Technical, international publications of high quality.

For many years she has worked in the salt-glaze and wood firing ceramics aesthetic, giving workshops and lecturing internationally on this subject.