Untitled

Ceramic
2023

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I started working with clay at an early age, going to an after school club, and its been a constant ever since.   I studied ceramics as part of my degree and went into teaching in secondary education, specialising in ceramics.

I hand build sculptural vessels and forms.  What excites me is working with the material and creating forms which leads to the exploration of the surface texture and development of colour.  I am inspired by the world around me, searching out the patterns and rhythms of the natural and man-made environment, most recently looking specifically at the harbour close to where I live and work.  I use a mixture of oxides, underglaze colours and slips to create colourful and tactile surfaces which I hope encourage people to explore the work.

This piece has come about from a conversation I had with another sculptor who encouraged me to push my work further.  It made me think about what would happen if I were able to push the form out without the restrictions of the material.  It lead to a series of work, that I am still exploring, which requires me to work in a different way, but remains open to working with the material and responding to the form at different stages.  Touch is a really important part of the making process and should be an important part of experiencing the work so the addition of a terra sigillata slip on the surface of the work makes it much more tactile and because the work will sit in different positions the tactile exploration of the work allows you to get to know the form, to interact with it and decide how you want to view it.