Installation of the first workshop at St. Géry, Lot, France. Construction of two fibre lined gas kilns of 100 and 380 litres capacity, the smaller one to facilitate intensive glaze research for stoneware and porcelain. Firings to 1280° C with reduction atmosphere.

Fabrication techniques

Throwing, extruding, slab building and press-moulding (or any other technique which enables me to arrive at the desired result !).

Wax, masking tape and gomme-laque resist, sgraffito, glaze-on-glaze, glaze-on-engobe.

During 26 years (16 in France), I have discovered clay, glaze and fire through making domestic pottery and individual pieces. I come from a designer background and therefore form is of the greatest importance to me ; I consider my work to be firmly anchored in the contemporary. As a ceramist I have developed a great interest in glaze, it seems to me an extension of the complicity with the basic material, clay. In a few hours we can reproduce the slow geological process in microcosm ! - eruptions, craquelle, and crystalline formation created by the firing. These reactions are provoked by the composition of the glaze, more or less fluid, by the form (horizontal and vertical surfaces, angles, furrows) and the type of clay used. It’s this interaction between the form and the behaviour of the glaze during the firing that interests me deeply.

I use local materials (minerals, ochres, wood and plant ashes), for me, it’s a way of obtaining very personal glazes from my environment. In England, particulary in Derbyshire, where I used to live, I incorporated wood ash and pulverised rocks (granite, dolerite, limestone, standstone) in my glazes. Since living in France I have turned towards the use of plant ashes (hay, vine, tobacco, maize and straw). All these materials are patiently collected, burnt and prepared according to the seasons and opportunities.

Principal exhibitions in France

1986 - Municipal Art Gallery, Cahors, Lot

1991 - " Palissy...and Us ? " Cultural Centre, Agen, Lot and Garonne

1992 - Métiers d’Art, Figeac, Lot (Chambre des Métiers)

1995 - " Celadon, colours of nature ", Bernard Palissy Museum, Lot and Garonne

1996 - " Celadons - Western Research ", Museum of Angers, Maine and Loire

1996 - 1998 - Epona Gallery, Paris

1999 and 2000 - " Le Grain du Sel " gallery, Monpazier, Dordogne

Foreign exhibitions

1993 - Bab-Rouah gallery (national gallery), Rabat, Morocco

1993 - Franco-Moroccan Alliance Gallery, Rabat, Morocco

1999 - International Bi-annual Ceramic Exhibition, Brussels, Belgium

1st March, 2001 - " Maison des Tupiniers ", Lyon, Rhone (FR)

1993 - Bernard Palissy jury prize, B. Palissy Museum (FR)

Individual pieces in private collections, notably, that of Didier Deroeux, Curator of the Dunkirk Contemporary Art Museum, Julius Van Wijk, Paris and in the Bernard Palissy Museum (public collection of contemporary ceramics).

1974 - 1978 : Self taught in ceramics. Creation of workshop at Milford, Derbyshire (GB)

1978 - 1981 : Awareness of the complexity of glaze - making was responsible for my decision to follow a 3 year course in ceramics at Derby Lonsdale College of Higher Education

1980 - Diploma of Derby Lonsdale College with Distinction. Thesis : " The use of local materials in stone ware glazes "

1980 - Licentiate of the Society of Designer Craftsmen

1981 - Licentiate of the Royal Society of Industrial Artists and Designers

1999 - Mould making course at the CNIFOP centre, st Amand-en-Puisaye, Nièvre (FR)

1978 - 1982 : Teaching of ceramics (basic pottery-making techniques, construction of a wood fired kiln for Raku firings) :
- evening classes for adults, belper Adult Education Centre, Derbyshire, (GB)
- recreative courses for adolescents, Repton Scool, Derbyshire, (GB)

Currently mamber of the " Terre et Terres " Association for potters and ceramists and member of the Artistic Commission for the " Maison de la Céramique Contemporaine de Giroussens ", Midi-Pyrénees region, (FR)