Having attended evening classes as an adult for a number of years and then given the unique opportunity to use a professional potter’s studio to develop my work further, I set up my own studio space in Oxford in 2011. I mainly hand build creating vases, tiles, sculptural and wall pieces.
Since 2020 I have also created a studio on the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides where I create similar work in addition to thrown pieces.
Dividing my time between Oxford and Mull, my work is inspired by the natural world -in particular the flora, seascapes and shores of places I have regularly visited over time in the West Coast of Ireland, from when I was a child, to the Scilly Isles ‘discovered’ in the early 2000’s and most recently on the Isle of Mull.
In Oxford and the surrounding countryside, I have always enjoyed the variety of flowering plants and trees in various formal gardens, parks and parklands as well as the more naturally occurring plants and trees alongside the waterways and meadows which surround Oxford and with which I am so familiar having grown up and lived in Oxford for a large part of my life.
Whether beach combing or photographing flowers and trees these images and forms inevitably end up in some way or other in clay! I am particularly drawn to the various textures, colours and patterns in rock formations, rock pools and sand as well as the geometric patterns re-occurring in flowers. In the last year or so I’ve become fascinated by the history and appearance of the Ginkgo tree -both its fabulous shaped and marked leaves as well as its dramatic change of colour in the autumn from green to bright sunshine yellow. This led me to explore mono printing its leaves onto clay tiles as well as decorating vases with imprints of its leaves.
Over the years I have developed various techniques for both colouring clay and texturing the surfaces of pieces -whether hand built or thrown- using a variety of tools and found objects. I like to experiment with different forms for slab building (often using tubes, cones and other objects designed for industrial use) as well as creating moulds for texture -which I make using both plaster and silicone- from found and beachcombed objects. Combining both the colouring and texture techniques has enabled me to produce both vases and wall pieces which reflect my favourite patterns, colours and forms in nature. I also enjoy ‘re-purposing’ discarded waste materials…cardboard, plastic and so on to create and replicate these textures in clay to create intriguing pieces in ceramic which have the appearance of their original paper, card and plastic forms.
Most of my pieces are constructed using porcelain or porcelain paper clay which I have learnt to ‘push’ to its limit to form extremely thin but highly durable and waterproof constructions and forms.
