I started making pots in 2014; I enjoyed ceramics at school, but other priorities, including bringing up a family, meant that I had not touched clay for over 35 years. Now I regret not returning to pottery earlier. I enjoy the tactile nature of the medium and the unpredictability and excitement of unloading the kiln. Pottery also involves creative tensions: between form and surface, between art and functionality.
I attend a weekly class at Morley College in London and have recently set up my own home studio. At the moment I am mostly making spoons and families of stoneware bottles and bowls, mostly decorated with blue and green glazes.
As I enjoy looking at and writing about the work of fellow potters, I intend to use this space on my website to host my writing about ceramics. While most relevant to fellow potters, I hope that some of my writing on ceramics will be of wider interest.
Raku firing at Morley College – a highlight of summer months, posted August 2015
Finding Frances Richards – looking at the life of a pioneer studio potter, August 2015
The immigration mug – an alternative contender to Labour’s notorious mug, August 2015
Abdo Nagi – another remarkable potter, August 2015
A River Thames ceramic timeline -the fragments of pots that litter the Thames foreshore reveal 2,000 years of London’s history, September 2015
Pottery in peril: a survey of ceramics teaching in adult and further education – a longer, policy-focused article on threats to courses, December 2015
A willow pattern repatriation – my fascination with the iconic willow pattern, shortlisted for the Ceramic Review writing prize, 2015.
Cobalt – suffering for beauty – looking at some of the ethical issues associated with cobalt mining, August 2016.
Clay – a story that goes back billions of years, September 2016.
River banks, pot holes and powder – the extraction and preparation of clay, a process that has remained essentially the same over thousands of years, September 2016.
Glaze recipes – the similarities between baking and ceramics, December 2016.