These seed pods left are the pieces I created most recently before starting my MA studies. The theme of plants and nature has been a dominant one for me since graduating in 1995 from UCLAN. I’ve always liked my work to be quite understated and have relied on oxides, underglazes, slips etc to achieve a surface which I feel is part of the piece rather than an addition to it. Here (right) the form has been built with coils of clay and pierced and incised before applying an oxide wash and firing to stoneware. I’ve also done some work with smoke-firing using different means of working with the smoke using sawdust, straw, seaweed, hair, paper etc and applying slips and resist decoration as well as burnishing the surface which has often been the most successful. (example below)