About

I day dreamed my way through school, imagining myself walking in the footsteps of the Japanese potter Hamada Shoji, A Potter’s Book by the father of British studio pottery, Bernard Leach, my constant companion.

I followed school with a Diploma in Ceramics at Epsom School of Art and Design but after failed attempts to find a pottery apprenticeship I abandoned my dreams of becoming a potter. Since then I have followed a varied career path that has included the auction business, Buddhist studies, teaching English in Japan, graphics and psychotherapy.

After a very difficult period of illness in 2014 I found myself a profoundly changed person. Craving joy and a simpler existence I realised I wanted to return to my first love, working with clay. Turning Earth Open Access Studio gave me the opportunity to rebuild my skills in London, and this journey has now led me to St Ives in Cornwall. Here I rent a space at the Gaolyard Studios – a collection of nine studios and a communal kiln room owned by potter John Bedding – and teach at the Leach Pottery on their three and five-day throwing courses.

Approach to my work

A lesson hard won

I came down to St Ives with great ambitions to master gas-fired ceramics, particularly the ash-based glazes of Japan.

Time, life and an unhelpful focus on perfect glaze finishes got in the way and – a lot of research, frustration and mistakes later – I changed my focus completely, simplifying processes as much as possible and concentrating on form and decoration. This led me to slipware which gives me a powerful contrast between the dark richness of earthenware clay, the clean white decorating surface of slip and the simplicity of just one transparent glaze. I use an electric kiln, bisc fire to cone 06 (1,000 degrees centigrade) and glaze fire using a frit-based clear glaze to cone 4 (1,160 degrees centigrade).