During a career always involved with ceramics I have met and been influenced by such notable figures as Hans Coper, Lucie Rie, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, and Michael Cardew; and have visited Bernard and Janet Leach at their renowned workshops at St Ives, Cornwall. They have all been inspirations to be assimilated towards a personal ceramic language. But the greatest inspiration has been studying work in museums by the many anonymous ethnic potters who have explored the simplest possibilities of clay and decoration.

I began working with sigillata with the desire to use the simplest materials with low firing temperatures and to develop a rich surface with a combination of form and pattern that would be integral to the clay. Starting with a simple black line and dense burnished orange, I gradually experimented with the multi-layers of slip and resist to obtain a surface that has a feeling of depth, allowing the smoke process to play its essential and unpredictable part.

From highly complicated patterns using lines to create rhythms around the form this extra dimension has released my linear pattern from its structure, allowing me to 'float' shapes onto the surface.

I am always searching for development that comes from repetition; allowing the idea to flow from one group of work to the next, adding and omitting to arrive at the ideal and most natural relationship of surface to form.

The pots are placed in sawdust in saggars and have several firings at various temperatures; each firing suggesting the next stage. It is the combination of the fundamental and the sophisticated that I find fascinating.