"My first encounter with clay was at college whilst in a life drawing class. Having spent many years working two dimensionally I had an understanding of the human form and it somehow allowed me to express my ideas in a more meaningful way adding texture and form to my work. Drawing underpins all my design ideas and I am grateful that the initial discipline of life drawing has been an immensely useful way to record and observe the human form enabling me to further my design work with ceramics.  I started making my blue angels in 2005. I had seen the Angel of the North on route to Newcastle whilst visiting family and took the idea home with me - I would try and make a representation of an angel on a smaller scale. At that time, I was living on a small farm in Norman’s Bay. It was an elevated property, located in splendid isolation, with breathtaking panoramic views over the Weald, where the gentle undulating line of the South Downs meets the sea at Beach Head. It was very much about the skyline and the blue hue. I organised an open day at the farm. We had a herd of Alpacas which stole the show and invited a couple of local artists to exhibit with me. We donated a percentage of our sales to the local Macmillan nurses. I had sadly just lost my father to cancer and wanted to give back to a much needed cause. I made a couple of small blue angels, entitled Macmillan Angels, they went down very well. I’m still making the blue angels, each one is individually made with a different stance, depending how the mood takes me. The larger angels I call Angels of the South. If I had the resources I would have liked to have one placed on Beachy Head, one day maybe in my dreams! 

The Nomadic Ladies were inspired by Gustav Klimt whom I greatly admire. Had I not discovered clay I think it just might have been textiles that I dabbled in. I’m very drawn to costume, colour and pattern. I loved dressing up dolls as a child. I suppose in a way I’m reliving my childhood by making the human form and then designing the costume. The Nomadic Ladies evolved soon after the angels. They are made by the hand-building method. I build up the torso by joining coils of clay together then create the face sometimes from a mould I have previously created from plaster. I then roll out sheets of clay which I impress with antique lace and woven textiles to create and emphasise surface texture. These are added onto the torso and also draped around the head to make the headdress. I also use buttons to impress into the clay from my grandmother's button box. The process is quite lengthy, I have to allow time in between making the torso and adding the patterned clay to the form in order to maintain the stability of the finished piece. After a week of drying the Ladies are then fired in my kiln for around twelve hours. The final glazing process I feel is always the trickiest, I generally use oxides and stains which work well with the impressed patterns, bringing out depth and emphasising the patterns in the lace. The second firing is a shorter one around six hours. I have used oil paints on some of my Nomadic Ladies along with small pieces of metal that I have embossed. More recently I have introduced fabric which I have printed and soaked in a product called Paverpol which stiffens the fabric making it more durable to compliment the clay. I never stop experimenting. In fact, I feel all my work is one big experiment, by experimenting you learn."