Path and Inspiration

I grew up in the beautiful Wicklow Mountains in Ireland. My mother was an artist and throughout my childhood I was surrounded by art and nature.  I fell in love with clay many years ago while studying Art for my Leaving Cert (Irish A level), the art room was an break from academic subjects and art and craft has continued to be a huge part of my life. In the early 1990s I moved to London and spent the week working as a  software developer, while spending the weekend selling my creations at Camden Market. Children came along and put my creative hobbies on hold for a while.

I later went back to ceramics classes, first at the University of Hertfordshire and then at Morley College in London, I purchased a kiln and a wheel and gradually managed to take over the garage which is currently my studio. I feel so fortunate to have discovered clay, making pottery is immensely satisfying, but it is also therapeutic and meditative, throwing on the wheel requires a complete focus.

Process and Practice

I’m currently based in St Albans and make wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramics in porcelain and stoneware. Forms have proportion and simplicity, and have a function. I enjoy food and cooking and want my ceramics to be useful in everyday life, enhancing the food they hold or flowers that they display rather than dominating. I make all my own glazes from raw materials, adding oxides in different concentrations to allow variations of similar colour. I prefer muted colours, particularly blues, greens and greys with subtle variations. I use both glossy and matt glazes, often I use slips and engobes, which I sometimes layer and overlap to create depth of colour and variation of texture on the same piece.

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