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Until recently, I had never worked with porcelain clay. Having discovered it, I now absolutely love it!

It produces pieces in the purest white ,translucent under light, that are both delicate and strong.

Working with porcelain comes with its challenges. The particles are so fine – almost like cornflour. Working the clay, rolling and pressing it into shapes, it quickly dries and crumbles as the heat from your hands draws the water from it. Each piece requires further smoothing with a damp sponge to ensure fine dry cracking is smoothed over. The clay is difficult to wedge when trying to ensure no air is trapped, when preparing it for rolling or throwing. Inevitable some air is trapped as seen in the hand made and wheel thrown pieces below. I have never detected bubbles, during making and nor after the first firing (low temperature bisque), but clearly after the extra heat of the glaze firing temperatures, rise from the pots clearly. The plasticity of the clay seems to allow a stretch and the glaze acts like a skin, saving them from bursting. I rather like this development, giving the ceramic an extra aesthetic. 

I find throwing this clay  another challenge as the surface clay, quickly turns to cream. Imagine throwing with cream! I try to continue the wedge  when centring hoping to expel air.  I use minimal water to keep it moving as I make the form. Too much and I would be left with a very creamy slurry and no pot.   In recent forms I like, the contrast with a transparent glaze and unglazed surfaces, and the colbalt blue underglaze with a transparent glaze on top.

So far, I have been using porcelain to create wheel-thrown and hand-built vases; small salt and pepper table pots with spoons; and fine bowls. Pendants and earrings made with porcelain are particularly beautiful. 

Most recently  I have enjoyed using a fine brush and painting with underglaze directly on the clay ‘canvas’. It is deeply satisfying as the paintings come from my own experiences, travels and the like, and I revisit happy times. Hand painting takes time, but it allows me to personalise my pieces, making each unique. 

It all started with the chickens and cockerels that were with me as I potted in the studio. Then came turtles and tropical fish, after swimming in the waters of the Southern Tropics. And, after that, I was inspired by so many beautiful creatures: Galapagos blue-footed boobies; cormorant; New Zealand birds, including tui, fantail, kiwi and pukeko; British wildlife, such as badgers, foxes and squirrels; and garden birds and wild birds, especially gulls and puffins.

Most recently, I have perfected a design of gulls flying in the up-drafts of air as they fly off the cliffs of Cornwall, silhouetted against the sky. This design works well on plates, bowls and mugs. As all birds are drawn individually in their shapes and patterns, no two pieces are exactly alike.  

Bowls lend themselves perfectly to my design of a shoal of fish in silhouette on the outside of a bowl which, inside, contains the deep blue sea.

I can easily produce sets by throwing and bisque firing in advance. Then, should someone want a set of say, four plates and side plates, I can paint them and glaze (in the colours and designs of choice, or perhaps of designs I have made already), and then glaze fire to completion within 48 hours. 

I am having a bit of a kiwi phase at the moment. This stemmed from a commission to produce a replica kiwi-sized bird, as you may have read in a previous blog or Instagram post.

I soon realised the kiwi’s feet had to be enlarged in order to support the oversized body and head. Reducing the weight meant turning and carving into the body whilst balancing the head with its extended beak.  However, my first attempts reminded me that clay has its own memory and will move in the glaze firing. The kiwis must be dancing in the heat of the kiln! One moved up and down, forcing a straight beak to curve up as it touched the ground during the firing; another moved sideways to join up with a nearby pot; and yet another, pulled down by the weight of its head, picked up its heels to dip down, cracking its ankles. A couple didn’t make it beyond the bisque firing, and one suffered a nudge off the workbench.

But practice makes perfect, and I now have two lovely completed kiwis for my commission, and two rather quirky birds to be sold as seen. The kiwis have been a journey, and have helped me to really enjoy the nature of clay and heat. No handbuilt piece is exactly identical to another, but they all have charm.