The new series of work, made in November 2021, is a continued exploration of influences and ideas that have been swirling around in my head since I first started making ceramics almost a decade ago. At that time I was learning to throw with terracotta clay, and my key ceramic influences were the pots I had seen on display in the Ahsmolean museum in Oxford. My favourites were always the bronze-age Aegean, and pre-dynastic Egyptian earthenwares. Even while I spent years working exclusively in porcelain those images stayed in the back of my mind where they mixed with other inspiration, from Shang and Zhou- dynasty Chinese vases, to Yayoi period coil pots, Joseon period Korean, and contemporary Japanese wood-fired stoneware.

The first attempt to distil and explore this syncretic mix of ideas were the coil pots I made during the first lockdown. I aimed to make pots that responded to those influences, and echoed the forms, but without trying to recreate any one piece or ceramic culture. I used a mix of different terracotta, and white and black stoneware clays to get a range of brown and russet tones that echo the earthenwares made in bronze-age kilns, while keeping the benefits of vitrified stonewares. The forms ranged from footed bowls - which referenced ritual serving vessels, to jugs, to vases in all shapes.

For years I was reluctant to work with stoneware and darker clays, as I was concerned with contaminating the porcelain that was my main material. When I moved into the my new studio in September 2021 one of my main aims was to buy a second wheel and set up the studio so I could work with dark clay and porcelain side by side. So this collection is the first chance I've had to work with these darker clays and forms on the wheel. Many of the forms are similar to those I've explored previously in coil pots or in porcelain, but in my imagination they were always intended to be thrown. I sat down with just a few vague plans and created freely. With many of the pots I've thrown them loosely to keep a sense of movement and avoid lifeless perfectionism. In order to keep that sense of placeless antiquity, I've left them completely unglazed.

You might notice there are few shared characteristics between this range, my recent coil pots, the Anagama pieces, and some of my more recent porcelain.

A narrow foot gives them a sense of poise and elegance, gradually swelling up to a high belly that creates a striking upwards-movement. Often there is a slightly inflected shoulder leading to a wide neck. Sometimes the shoulder curves in to a narrow neck. Either way there is the flared rim that draws in the gaze. Some of these features I can point to specific pots or styles that influenced them, but taken together they have a familiarity and resemblance that can be hard to pin down.

A few snapshots from my latest visit to the Ashmolean museum. It’s one of my favourite museums to find inspiration from pots from antiquity. In these pictures are neolithic and bronze-age vessels from the Nile valley, Iran, China, the Aegean and Central-Europe.

The first batch of hand-built stoneware, where I freely explored the influences that have also inspired this latest batch of work.