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My work continually evolves as I search for new techniques and surfaces. All themes share low fired characteristics with minimal use of glaze. My focus is capturing a presence which communicates the quiet authority of the landscapes which inspire me.
Smoke fired series
Working with both fire and water, I have adapted the traditional smoke firing technique to reflect the shallow, tidal waters around our coastline. Each piece is a unique reflection of its firing. Work is thrown, burnished, sprayed with stained terra sigilatta and biscuit fired. Afterwards they are fired in an incinerator dust bin with wood shavings.
Lichen Series
This series holds the idea seen during Covid that as we retreated indoors, nature stepped forward to fill the space we had occupied. That quiet reclaiming felt strangely hopeful. The classic pitcher form represents mankind, and the surface suggests that it has been buried in the earth or the sea and is being reclaimed. These forms are thrown and altered and the surfaces are created using layers of slips and oxides and minimal glaze.
Rust series
This series emerged from my move from the Scottish Highlands to urban England and the sense of dislocation that resulted. These pieces are the dystopian counterpart to the Lichen Series. Where the Lichen Series finds quiet hope in nature's reclaiming, Rust sits at a harder edge. These forms are poised at the point of collapse, and yet something in them holds. That tension is the work. Threaded through the series are questions about consumption and throwaway culture. Work in this series is thrown and altered or slab built. Surfaces are created using terracotta and wild clays with oxides.
Earth series
This series attempts to capture quietly authoritative landscapes featuring ancient rock; their weight, their age and their silence. Work is variously thrown or hand-built from black clay and decorated using red earth from terracotta and wild clays.
Plant series
This work investigates the repeat patterns and textures that run through the natural world. Seed pods, coral, the fine architecture of grasses, a quiet celebration of wild places and plants that inhabit them. Vessels in this series are thrown or hand-built, variously carved or textured and decorated using Parian (a self glazing porcelain).