The studio was purpose built in 2006 as an internal space within an old farm barn, which also houses my kiln and a couple of donkeys. I did the work myself after completing my course in Ireland. It is well equipped with three wheels, slab roller, extruder, electric kiln and of course my 80 cubic foot wood fired kiln.

All of my work is made in the studio except when the weather is good I take the wheels outside and throw in the sun. Partly because it’s nice but mainly because of the speed with which the pots dry, making me able to get a lot more done.

I have a designated glaze research area where I try to develop new glazes, experimenting with local materials that I have collected from the surrounding area.

WOOD FIRING

I built my kiln at the beginning of 2007 from plans supplied by Joe Finch. It was a great project and an important one that gave me a deeper understanding of kilns and how to fire them. It is a large kiln at 80 cubic feet (or 4”x4”x5”), which I fire with off-cuts from a sawmill in the nearby Preseli Hills.

The kiln fires to stoneware temperatures of 1300°c. Due to its fast fire downdraft design firings can be as short as nine hours.

Firing a wood kiln is very involved, the constant stoking giving you a strong connection to the process that turns raw earth into glass and stone. The direct contact with ash and flame brings a subtle earthiness to my work. The unexpected nuances in each piece resulting from the firing reinforce my works connection with the natural environment and the unique processes that shape the landscape.

LOCAL MATERIALS

My degree in Archaeology & Anthropology gave me a deep interest in the human experience of landscape. The acts carried out within a place, such as those associated with resource collection, shape our understanding and perception of the world around us.

I gather materials from my local landscape that can be incorporated into my work, breaking cuboid crystals of iron pyrite from the pebbles at Porth Mawr, crushing them and sprinkling them onto glazes, or digging clay from Waun Llodi, the moor below the studio, and using it as slip decoration; collecting crushed slate from Abereiddi then wedging it into porcelain; quartz from Caerfai, clay from Abermawr or from the cave at Traeth Llyfn, and even seaweed from Porth y Rhaw. I do this partly for the aesthetic value it brings to my work but also as an act within the landscape, which references my experiences past and present. My hope is that this creates a narrative, one that conveys a unique sense of place.

Every material I collect brings with it a story of this land – past or present, personal or mythical, historical or philosophical. After many fruitless excursions, I finally found copper ore near the disused mine at Treginnis. Adding it to the surface of a jar speaks of a place where land meets sea, where the tide sweeps between islands, where ships were wrecked and saints escaped, where miners died and I as a boy swam the notorious waters of Ramsey Sound.

Materials are incorporated into my work in a spontaneous way. The miniature jars lend themselves to this experimentation. I refer to them as my sketch book, a diary, each piece a study of my environment. They are attempts to capture the essence of a place through the use of resources I discover and seek out; through experimentation and repetition, knowledge and happenstance. Collectively they are a narrative of experience, individually they are moments of inspiration and in triptych they are histories of land and sea.

I still study archaeological literature from my time at university, reading about ancient indigenous rituals and practices that feel relevant to my own. Ancestral people from the Neolithic would bury or deposit objects within the landscape. Human and animal bones, tools and even pottery were deliberately placed in locations that held significance. Many of the locations appear to be determined by landscape features, suggesting an exploration of their relationship to nature and the land. These ‘votive deposits’ were usually in wild places, often spectacular and inaccessible.

Learning of this I started to make tiny ‘votive jars’ roughly the size of thimbles, leaving them in wild places that inspire me. An offering to the diverse spaces and deep time within nature that uplift and calm my spirit as a denizen of this place.

Creating site-specific artworks out in the landscape is a significant part of my practice, one that connects me to the landscape. Some of my most seminal works come from these enactments. Often performative and time sensitive, projects such as Earth to Earth interacts with the forces of nature. Veneration Bell references a specific space and time through the placing of a crafted object. The daily ritual of visiting, documenting and creating these pieces in remote and spectacular locations necessitates long periods of time within nature. Being present in the landscape influences my thinking and brings that understanding to every piece I make. I hope that a common narrative emerges, a dialogue between studio practice and works made outdoors that reflect my way of being.