Every Potter's Journey begins with inspiration...

...and this work is dedicated first to my mother, Nellie, who always supported my creativity, and second, to the ceramic artists of the past 100 years or so, who helped shape studio ceramics as we know it today.

My own Potter’s Journey began in the early 1980s.

While studying painting at art college, I took a ceramics class for the first time — and something immediately shifted.

Working directly with clay, learning to centre on the wheel, glazing and firing work changed how I understood making. It wasn’t instant or easy — centering was challenging for me — but eventually it clicked.

On my 21st Birthday, my parents gave me a wheel for me to pursue my Ceramics studies. That was the moment clay became part of who I am.

At that time, learning ceramics looked very different. There were no online videos, few accessible resources, and information came slowly — through second-hand, highly technical reference volumes by Leach and Rhodes (overwhelming for a young student, but which I still use today) and some old B&W Pottery magazines — as well as studio experimentation.

Eventually, towards the end of my studies, newer publications like Craft Arts became my creative touchstones. My wonderful mother began collecting these resources for this penniless student and they remain a source of inspiration to this day.

After graduating, I established my own modest studio with small gas kiln, however, as the handmade crafts went through periods of decline and change via mass commercial imports and the recession, I eventually moved into teaching, where I continued for 25 years.

Today, I am again creating in my new Farmhouse pottery studio, working from that same, faithful old wheel — having established a larger studio and, since building a Woodfired Kiln from which I now produce both functional and artisanal wares, I am finally fulfilling that dream from my college days long ago.