Process

I graduated from art school in 1996 and have been working with clay since then. I am in a long-term relationship with clay and it becomes more interesting, challenging and enjoyable as the years go on. I aim to create affordable, simple and beautiful pottery which people get pleasure from using. Throwing is my favourite part of the process; tranforming a spinning ball of clay into pleasing forms never loses it's magic. I experiment with glazes to achieve subtle hues and particularly like using light opaque glazes over the dark red clay. I leave the clay exposed at the bottom of mugs and bowls and apply the glaze thickly to create drips, enjoying the results from the firing process and the contrast between the glassy runny glaze and the raw high fired body. I draw simple line drawings always inspired by nature, prepare transfers and fire them into the glazed surface. I like the interaction between the transparency of the image and the variations of colour in the glaze.

I was born in Glasgow in 1974 and grew up in Helensburgh on the west coast. In 1991 I went to Glasgow School of Art to train to be a product designer. During my second year one of the students had gone to Denmark on an exchange trip and came back with some stunning ceramic vases she had made there. Within a month I had moved over to the ceramics department. I studied ceramics, printmaking and sculpture at the University of Toledo in Ohio in 1995 as part of an exchange trip and later returned there from 1996 to 1998 and lent a hand in the ceramics department, helping to mix clay and glazes and fire kilns in return for access to studio space and materials. On my return to Glasgow I leased a studio at the Glasgow Sculpture Studios where I took on private commissions, community art projects and ran workshops for schools, community groups and colleges. You can see some of those projects here www.deepfired.net From 2007 to 2010 I rented a shop unit in Govan (Glasgow) and called it Deepfired Ceramics Studio. I ran a lot of classes there, made public artworks and began to make studio pottery. Late last year I moved to Ardersier near Inverness and I now work from my quiet garden studio and look out over the Moray Firth as I throw my pots.

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My CV