Process

My work is largely hand built using slab building and coiling techniques. I use locally and sustainably sourced clays wherever possible and work with terracotta, stoneware, and porcelain, adding grog, sand, or other natural found materials to the clay to achieve the desired texture and surface.

Stones and wooden paddles help me to achieve the organic shapes of my sculptural vessels. To finish my work, I often use terra sigillata together with hand burnishing techniques to achieve a luminous skin-like finish and a porous surface. Made of finely ground dry clay and a small amount of deflocculant, terra sigillata is a natural gloss coating perfected by potters across the Mediterranean region over several millennia. The extremely fine particles create a surface so thin it reveals the intimate surface texture of the clay.

For other works, I use a combination of oxides, slips, stains, engobes, dry glazes, and raw unglazed surfaces to create natural-looking finishes which harmonise with the clay body - often firing my work multiple times to build up layers of colour and texture.