
- Diploma of Further Education in Fine and Applied Arts (Ceramics), London Metropolitan University, 1995
- Have led numerous pottery activities for adults and children:
- 2010, 2017 and 2018: workshops for children at Rainbow Mill NVC Camp, Norfolk, and NVC Summerfest
- 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2009: summer holiday week-long art and pottery activities for adults and children at Othona West Dorset
- 1992: taught pottery, art and craft as a BUNAC Summer Camp Counsellor at North Star Camp for Boys, Wisconsin, USA
- Member of Anglian Potters (2018 to date) and Colchester MakerSpace (2018-2021)
How it all started
Like many people, when I first saw someone throw a pot on a wheel I thought, that is so amazingly beautiful, I want to learn to do that. If you’re a generation older than me, that moment would probably have been the Potters Wheel Interlude Film on black and white BBC TV. For me it was the professional thrower followed by the hapless contestants on Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game (1960s edition, not the revamped 1990s version). Lately, it would be The Great Pottery Throw Down (BBC2 from 2015 onwards).
Luckily my school had good pottery equipment, including a couple of kickwheels and an electric wheel. After I’d learned to throw there, which culminated in my first teapot – which is, after all, the highest expression of the ceramic art form! – it was adult ed classes all the way up till I got really serious with the USA summer camp, 1992, and the Diploma in 1993-1995 (see above).