About
I am a ceramic artist and I live and work in rural Lancashire. My work is predominantly sculptural forms. I run a ceramics studio called Pendle Pottery Studio in Barrowford, where I make my own work and teach pottery, I teach both hand building techniques and wheel throwing for beginners. I have always been fascinated with the materiality of natural objects, the weight of a smooth pebble in my hand, the intricate textures in tree bark & the contours and crevices of shells & seed pods, but it is the complex and sophisticated structures occurring in the myriad of fungal species, together with their crucial role in the ecosystem that dominates my interests and currently informs my ceramics practice.
Project overview
We Are All Connected
Fungi are at the beginning and end of almost all organic life cycles on the planet, they have the power to heal and kill and to transform mind and body. Through a complex web of mycelium, they form essential, protective, life sustaining mycorrhizal relationships with thousands of plants and trees. Fungi’s ability to connect so symbiotically with other species in nature feels like a mirror for the relationships and bonds that connect us as humans and the significance of our own symbiotic relationships on how we become who we are. This project has been a unique and challenging journey, where I have developed a series of abstract sculptural works that are inspired by the fruiting bodies of fungi. I have developed new technical skills to enable me to create complex forms and structures, and undertaken numerous experiments in order to resolve both glazing and construction problems that have arisen throughout the making process. How the forms connect is a very important aspect of the construction and aesthetic appearance of the work, as this is a core aspect of my research and evolving narrative for this project. As such the forms created are not intended to be derivative of a specific species or form, but are created to show the physical connections between the different organic shapes and forms observed in the pieces. I would love my work to raise questions and encourage people to learn more about the importance of fungi and perhaps to reflect on our own relationships with the natural world and each other.
Fruiting Body. Black Stoneware with Lichen Crawl Glaze
Fruiting Body. Lila Stoneware with lava glaze.
Fruiting Body. White Stoneware with Black crawl glaze.
Stacked connected Forms. Grey Stoneware with lava glaze.
Stacked connected form. White stoneware with black crawl glaze.
