I can’t remember a time when ‘The Pottery’ wasn’t a fundamental part of life. We had a pottery shed in the back garden and even cooked our Christmas turkey in the gas kiln - seeing the flames shooting out of the chimney from my bedroom on Christmas eve is one of my earliest and happiest memories. My Dad was a craft potter who trained under Harold Thornton at Burnley Art School in the 1960s and had a lifelong practice in the tradition of Bernard Leach. He was a brilliant artist and craftsman and an exceptional teacher and throughout his life he taught at Art, Design and Ceramics schools across the country. When he met my mum, they expanded the studio to include her unique decorative designs and glazing into his thrown work and together they sold and exhibited across the world.

Growing up surrounded by some of the worlds leading potters, who would often pop in to have (I thought) long and boring conversations with my parents, I managed to absorb more of the craft than I realised. It was only as I reached adulthood that I discovered that the throwing skills I took for granted weren’t standard issue to 90s teenagers. It had come easy to me and so I didn’t value it as much as I should.

Then in 2018, I made a theatre show about recovering from PTSD that used pottery and kintsugi as a central metaphor for rebuilding after a devastating accident. After more than a decade of ignoring clay entirely, I remembered all I knew and, more importantly, the utter joy I find in throwing.

My dad died in March 2023 and since then I have established my own studio in Scotland and taken over his pottery in Crete which I now run alongside my mum.

My work continues the legacy of Bernard Leach and other British craft potters that I inherited from my Dad. Like them, my work is heavily influenced by Japanese and Chinese potters, but having grown up partly in Crete, I also borrow heavily from Minoan and Ancient Greek art.

I make both utility and decorative ware to order, mostly in high-fired stoneware and porcelain. Many of my designs are also influenced by the natural landscapes of the Hebrides, where I work for most of the year, and as a result I am unhealthily obsessed with green glazes of all kinds.