Hi! Thanks for stopping by. Me? Oh, well, since you ask, pottery wasn't the first thing I thought of doing...
I have been many things so far in my 40-odd years, from an Award-Winning Organic Cheesemaker to a Primary School Teacher, from Archaeologist to Bookseller, from Youth Hostel Manager (Warden) to Library Assistant. After University I wanted to make something, to create - that's how I ended up making cheese in the Welsh Hills. Then books and artefacts called, and the years I spent amongst the shelves and skeletons (as well as Prehistoric Houses and Viking Burials) were some of the best in my life.
Then I decided to try my hand at a proper grown up job, and eight years in the classroom filled me with many exceptional, happy and exhausting memories. My parents "Courted" in the 1960s visiting the YHA network across England, Wales and Scotland, so it seemed fitting that my next move was in to the Youth Hostel movement. Working in Cumbria led to the Yorkshire Coast (at the iconic Boggle Hole) and eventually to my own hostel in Northumberland.
In 2019 I started attending evening classes at the Edinburgh Ceramics Workshop, and found that the little boy who liked to play in the mud, and the University Graduate who spent his working hours in excavated pits and trenches, was still drawn to pottery. After years of thinking about doing something creative in clay, I took the plunge.
Summer 2021 saw me leave the YHA and take up pottery full time. I combine making my own pots with running hand-building workshops and drop-ins to help people experience and discover the joy off clay. Ceramics has done wonders for my own mental wellbeing - hopefully it may help a few other folk thanks to this awfully muddy adventure.
This is the beginning of my pottery adventure. I learn something every time I try something new, and each failure (and there have been quite a few) helps me become better. To find out more about my pots and practice, please visit the blog page. Thank you.