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As a child I loved exploring and digging for treasures.  A museum visit as an adult reignited my curiosity, and reintroduced me to muddy clay.   

 

In 2018, at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum Crete, I became fascinated by a display of 3,000 year old egg-shell-thin ceramic cups.  How did the Minoan artisans do this?  I signed up at a local pottery studio as soon as I got home.

 

Move on a few years and I'm getting closer to 10,000 hours of ceramic practice.  Nowadays I always have my sketch book with me.  It helps me pay close attention to things that interest me. Sketching settles forms and ideas in my head.  They rest there until, gradually, my hands and the clay work together to interpret and recreate them.  The results often surprise me (and more often frustrate me - but that's clay for you).

 

Ceramics have been made and used by human hands for tens of thousands of years. Clay is ordinary and familiar, and infinitely varied.  This is what draws me to it.

 

I am delighted when people respond to my pieces, especially when the response is to reach out and touch them.

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The process that formed the Minoan egg-shell-thin cups remains a mystery to me, waiting to be discovered.  (No spoilers please!)