Influences and Inspiration
The tactile quality of clay offers a unique starting point to create vessels and sculptural pieces that are both pleasing to the eye and the touch. It is always a temptation to run your fingers over rough unglazed areas and feel the smooth buttery patina of glazed surfaces.
Ancient pots have long held a special appeal for me with their worn, cracked and scarred surfaces, showing the marks of some ancient potters tools. They have a timeless beauty and simplicity.
I am exploring bringing the same sense of contemplation to my work, that I feel when gazing through the glass windowed cases at centuries old pots in the British Museum.
I'm drawn to abstract paintings, images pared down to blocks and swirls of colour, highlights of dots and dashes and squiggles. I look at a coastal estuary and see how the tide swirls in around the sand making abstract patterns. The fells where I live with the rocky outcrops, jagged peaks and ever changing light patterns. All of this I hope to reflect in my work.
WORKING PRACTICE
I am currently hand building using Potclays craft crank, with a tin glaze and applied colour
For the sculptural pieces I am using Scarva Porcelain Paper clay with cobalt and copper oxides rubbed into the surface
At present I am firing in an electric kiln between 1260 -1270 degrees.
Soon, I will be using my old gas fired kiln which has been brought back into commission and is now installed in an extension to my garden shed.
