If you fancy knowing...
I make hand thrown pottery and sculptures, created in my studio at Rainbow Cottage Pottery, situated in the Kent countryside, near to the White Cliffs of Dover.
My surroundings and passion for wildlife, animals and nature play a big part in the creation process, with glazes that give the earthy feel of autumn and winter and creating sculptures of animals and wildlife.
My first introduction to clay happened with a gift for Christmas, a short pottery course many years ago which needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed, making myself a sink that ended up being a fruit bowl (nobody told me how much clay shrinks in the firing processes) and a squirrel that looked like it had eaten its winter supply several times over :).
For years after, I was really desperate to start messing about with some clay, I didn’t have a hobby or better still something I truly enjoyed doing and so eventually I became the proud owner of an electric kiln, that I was petrified of and scared to turn on. It arrived with 2 thick manuals and the temperature it could reach was scary to me. I kept thinking ‘What the are you doing?!’ and ‘You haven’t got a clue’, and ‘You’ve got all the gear and no idea’ haha, to be truthful I was afraid of failing or worse doing what I usually do and giving up once I feel I’ve figured something out. I hadn’t touched a slab of clay in years or learnt to throw on the wheel and here I was with a costly kiln and no clue what I was doing!
Eventually I read most of one of the manuals and after picking out clay from a supplier I went for it and the first thing I made was a small Hare, and he was, in my eyes, absolutely beautiful. I used lots of photos online of hares and came up with my own version of what I thought he should look like, which was a little slumped and fed up looking. When I sat back and inspected him for myself, I knew that I could never get bored of this.
In brief over the next 2 years between work and other goings on , I’ve learnt a massive amount about clay and what to do with it. For example.. the drying processes, how to fire and program the kiln, glazing, centring and throwing on the wheel, pulling handles, tools and I’ve still so much more to learn. I’m really thankful for You-Tube and the many persons who created all those pottery videos, they all taught me! I DO have a huge range of books which are mostly ignored, but look really good on my shelf. In the end I just got stuck in and gave it go. I’ve got to add there’s been a lot of steep learning curves and disappointments and nothing happens quickly but amongst all that are moments of elation and excitement, (especially when you open the kiln from a glaze firing) and they’ve kept me going, spurring me on to the next learning curve.
So, another year or so later, I invite people to share my little studio through pottery sessions, helping people to get creating again with clay or to experience it for the first time! It’s great to be a part of and I love to see what materialises from an idea :)
My next step is to build a slightly bigger studio in the garden, hopefully in the spring and with that I will be able to offer workshops for small groups on a regular basis, opening up the opportunity to mess around with clay for as many people as possible :)
