Describe your craft in one sentence. Pottery!
Pots take you over completely.
What first drew you to your medium?
When I studied English and French in Munich in the early 1960s, I walked past a pottery in a back yard on the street where I lived. The potter and his wife were artisans making flower pots. Like all potters, they were very kind and they let me have some clay. I made a small hand built vase and she glazed it and he fired it. That was it, I was hooked. Later on, when I was living in England with my husband I learned to throw and I am still doing it. Throwing still appeals to me because of its flow and relationship between body, clay and motion. There is also an immediacy and transformation with throwing that is not present in other techniques.
What is the most exciting/rewarding part of your process?
Opening the kiln… which is the same for every potter. I love making functional pots with my own version of shape and colour. I specialise in vibrant colours and sinuous forms. I have long been drawn to bowls and jugs in particular. They are forms that sit at the heart of domestic life - objects of use, yet also of generosity and gathering. I have enjoyed adapting these forms and playing with their scale to emphasise their sculptural presence. I have chosen to make single fired pots and that can sometimes make problems, but on the other hand you don’t have to do a bisque firing.
What inspires/informs your work?
I am influenced by the beauty which potters in the ancient past have created. I want to express a feeling of beauty, elegance and harmony like we find in nature. I make my own glazes and can develop glazes in colours which suit my pots emotionally. Colour influences the feel of the pot. I have learned a lot by making many hundreds of tests to achieve strong colours of my own.
Do you have a typical day?
No. Each day is led by the making process in hand. So the pots dictate what needs to be done next.
What have you learned through the development of your practice?
Apart from my technical knowledge about glazes, pottery teaches you patience and perseverance.
What advice would you give to someone starting out?
If you strongly feel pottery is something you want to do, do it intensely. Be warned it will take you over.
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