About
From architecture to ceramics
Designing buildings and designing pots involves similar acts of imagination about form. But while architects seldom make their conceptions potters make theirs with their own hands – an enjoyable freedom to combine head and hand.
I started potting in 1990 as a stress-free antidote to architectural practice, and found making-by-hand increasingly satisfying. The award of a ceramics residency in St Quentin-La-Potterie, France, afforded the chance to increase my skill and interest. After retiring from architecture in 2017 I have been largely immersed in ceramics.
Making Slowly
Two hand building techniques – coiling and slab building – allow time to pause, consider, to sometimes leave a piece overnight (wrapped so it remains damp) and come back to squeeze, pinch, cut or add to it, as I feel the form needs to change.
Getting the form just right
Form interests me much more than decoration, so I often repeat a piece over and over until the form approaches what I have in mind. I am content to use only simple, single colour glazes to leave the form to speak for itself – either Dolomite white or Manganese brown.
