Image credit: David McKibbin
I make a range of functional and decorative tin-glazed earthenware and commissioned lettered pieces for special occasions like weddings and births.
Tin-glazed earthenware - Maiolica - is a historic technique which in its time wanted to imitate the porcelain that came from China. A buff or red earthenware clay was covered with a tin-glaze which gave a white surface for colourful decoration.
Further down you can find notes that describe my technique.
If you are interested in commissioning a piece, please go to the COMMISSIONS and EXAMPLES pages which give general info on how to commission a piece with the EXAMPLES page showing completed commissions. I make a range of plates, bowls and drinking vessels for lettered work. Prices start at around £50. To find out more please email me through my CONTACT page.
You will find some pots that are ready to purchase in my SHOP page and upcoming shows in the EVENTS page.
I also offer individual tuition in throwing on the wheel and decorating with brushes; just get in touch via my CONTACT page to book a suitable time for you.
Image credit: Rebecca Welland
My process:
I throw most of the shapes that I make on the potter's wheel and refine them by turning at the leather-hard stage. Any shapes that are not round are made by press-moulding.
I use a red earthenware clay in equal parts a clay from Stoke on Trent, the other a buff clay from Deruta in Italy.
After the first firing - the biscuit firing - I glaze the pots by dipping and brush-paint my designs with oxide mixtures.
Pots are then glaze fired to between 1060 and 1080c in an electric kiln.
Image credit: David McKibbin
In a digital world of screens and pressing buttons, I find it grounding to work with a multitude of manual processes and the skills that are involved in making tin-glazed earthenware pottery.
I am interested in making items for use that are tactile and visually satisfying by controlling the processes of making, painting and firing. The finish of the underneath and the foot of the pot is as important to me as the position of the design on the shape, the quality of the glaze and the richness of the fired oxides.
I explore form and painting with the aim that each informs the other. I think of my work as evolving using the finished work as a reference point by which to move on from.
I am influenced by painting on ceramics from Persia, Spain and China; admiring fluency and skill with the brush.
Read my full CV here.
Click on the logo of the Hampshire and Berkshire Guild of Craftsmen below; this will take you to the Guild website.
