Jazz Glass


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Artist details

My first taste of ceramics was a one off occasion as a guest at an adult education class in Australia in 1997. The experience encouraged me, on my return to the UK, to enrol for a two year BTEC National Diploma in Design and Studio Ceramics at the Royal Forest of Dean College, under the auspices of Alastair Young and Jack Doherty, followed in September 2000 by a two year Professional Development Certificate Course, both of which I passed with Distinction.

I gave up ‘the day job’ in February 2002 to devote the majority of my time to ceramics. My workshop is an old converted wash house at my home in the Forest of Dean, where, apart from a small gas bottle fuelled raku kiln, I am wholly dependant upon electricity to fire my work. In 2010 I started to work in Dichroic glass, making pendants and earrings

I am a member of South Wales Potters, an Associate member of the Craft Potters Association, and a member of the Forest of Dean Big Art Web


About the Work

Although I occasionally use other clays for raku firing, my great love is porcelain, and the majority of my work is made in this demanding clay. Whatever the media, it is very important to me that my work is well finished, tactile, and visually appealing at any angle.

My pieces are thrown Limoge special porcelain and very white stoneware clay from Australia, fired to between 1260 and 1280 celcius in an electric top loader. I am interested in glaze technology, particularly in the field of creating unusual glaze surfaces within the constraints of electric kiln firing, and the subject of my work is an ongoing exploration into the beguiling and frustrating discipline of Macro Crystalline glazes. I am inspired by the simple, graceful shapes of Song dynasty Chinese porcelains; the Art Nouveau period with its fluidity of design; botanical motifs and the natural world in general - from fractals to water, and the folds of desert and rock. I have often thought the specialised crystalline glaze on my porcelain bowls and bottles to be reminiscent of many natural themes, including the soft lichen on the stones and trees of the Forest in which I live and work.


Mentoring and tuition

Crystalline glazes are difficult and rarely taught at colleges and universities, it has been my pleasure to mentor several students who have been as fascinated by the process as I, at my home in Gloucestershire. I have taken part in verious South Wales Potters events which are aimed specifically at educating the public and children in particular. I much enjoy meeting the general public who are often fascinated and receptive of my own enthusiasm about ceramics.



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