Making ceramics is a way of life as well as a craft – it’s been my life for the last forty-odd years.

Perhaps more than many other crafts, it dictates your timetable. When a piece is ready for turning (trimming), you can try and maintain it at that point of readiness for only so long – once it’s got too dry, you aren’t going to be able to continue the process as it should be done. This imperative of dealing with the work at the right moment in time affects many of the processes involved and involves endless late-night checks to wrap – or unwrap! the work in order that it should be at optimum readiness for the next working day….

However, the satisfaction gained from producing a visually pleasing and well functioning piece is what keeps us making – and continually striving to do it with more finesse or imagination – or both!

In the 1990s I moved from my native London to sunnier south-western France, a move which impacted strongly on my appreciation of colour – and has been my home ever since.