Biography

I left the business world and career when my children were born and entered the ceramic industry as an enthusiastic amateur, attended classes at various studios and masterclasses to learn and expose myself to the skills level enabling me to open my studio in 2003.  Initially, I worked with glass before turning my full attention to clay, first as a teacher for adults and children and then full-time producing unique and bespoke porcelain pieces. The completion of a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Art History and Ancient Art at the end of 2021 fed my hunger for ongoing learning and studies will continue with further research in 2022.

In my work it is my intention to create textures that compel touch, provoke memory and the shadows cast by the interplay of light are an integral part of each piece enhancing the quality of the clay.  As life evolves, my work too evolves and once created, each piece is a path to an expression which possesses an essence of life, a statement of being.  The ethereal qualities of porcelain are my passion, and the exploration of the material is an ongoing journey.  New work explores the reaction of acid on the clay body as a masking agent combined with the use of soluble salts to enhance the designs.

I embarked on a new journey in 2020 when building a wood-fire kiln during COVID lockdown with Christine Williams and it has taken me to avenues of exploring raw materials for clays and glazes suitable for reduction and atmospheric firing.  In the process, I have learned so much more about fire, the art of painting with flames and the natural phenomenon of ash glazing.  The darker and heavier clay bodies that I now also work with, lean itself towards heavier pieces, where the shapes are enhanced by the surface decoration of the firing process.  I am inclined to leave deliberate fingermarks on these pieces – a statement of my making and being.

A visit to Millstone Pottery in McGregor in 2005 was my very first introduction to wood-fired ceramics and I was fascinated. The work by Kitaoji Rosanjin at the Kyoto National Museum which I saw 10 years later, woke my slumbering passion for wood-fired ceramics and I built my first wood-fire kiln in October 2018, a small philosopher’s kiln. In July 2020 a new kiln, Meraki, a downdraught fast fire kiln was built at the studio of Christine Williams in Krugersdorp using recycled bricks from the kiln by late Chris Patton.