Like Geoff, I came to study pottery as a mature student after spending my early working life in offices in a variety of roles.  It was my love of food and interest in cooking which awakened my interest in pots.  When you spend time selecting a menu, choosing the ingredients, studiously following the recipe and carefully preparing the constituents, it is nice to display the results of your labours in their best and most appetising way.  After all, it was probably the glorious photo in the recipe book which influenced your decision on what to include on your menu in the first place!

It was between 1980 - 1983, while studying on Chesterfield's then excellent pottery course that I was introduced to the world of ceramics - and I loved it.  This is where I met Geoff, who was one of the lecturers, and we got together in 1981.  I graduated, with distinction, in 1983 but as things turned out it would be 25 years (2008) before things came together in a way which allowed me to start making again.  Because Geoff was renovating a beautiful 18th century farmhouse, taking up all our spare time and money, in September 1984 I returned to Chesterfield as a technician in the pottery department.

In 1987, because Geoff had always wanted to work as a potter rather than a teacher, we began looking for a property with enough space for a pottery, kilns etc., and we ended up buying the pub.  This building, which Geoff had known about since the early sixties, had enough space for all our needs, allowing Geoff to turn his ambitions into reality and enabling us to put pots and food together.  The pub had never offered food, so I had a blank canvas on which to work.  Our intentions were, after restoring the interior to it's former glory, to sell real ales only and offer truly home-cooked food using the excellent locally available meat and fresh vegetables, prepared to order and served on dishes made in the pottery.  This mix worked well and it wasn't long before people were coming to sample our fare and buy pots to take home so they could enjoy eating and drinking from hand made pottery in the comfort of their own homes.

For me, this success turned into a bit of an "own goal", because the only time I could spare out of the kitchen was to make the standard ware for the pub and for sale.  Finding a like-minded cook to take over from me was far from easy, but my patience was eventually rewarded late in 2007 when I  was finally able to hand over my kitchen responsibilities, first to a young, multi-talented friend who was looking for a career change, and then when he moved on, to another regular visitor to the pub and excellent chef.  Thanks to these good people I was finally able to concentrate solely on my pottery without distractions.  We prepared a new area and constructed a kiln so I could fire my own work, and the timing could not have been better.  We had at last completed the extensive renovations to the building and were able to turn the old hay loft into a Gallery.

I spent the summer and autumn of 2008 experimenting with my kiln and have now arrived at a style of saltglaze which I believe is distinctive to me.  I am looking forward to the continued exploration and evolution of my work.  My ideal is to create pots which people can not only use, but can enjoy as individual pieces.  See examples of my work here.