Hi there! Welcome to my website. A shout out to the masses who love all things clay, sculpting and ceramics.
Clay and sculpting have been part of my life for 15 years, it is food for my soul, and I am lost if I don’t have my hands on clay every week. Three years ago, I decided to jump into the driver’s seat and take charge of my creative education. I left the comfort of a weekly class room environment so that I could broaden my skillset, wanting to make a piece from concept to completion with my own hands. I set goals and challenges for myself, so that I learn something each year. I never thought I would or could refer to myself as a sculptor, let alone a ceramicist, and here I am leaping in, ready or not, well actually ... not ready at all and doing it anyway.
I had planned to attempt one small body of work this year, but things did not go to plan. A simple outing on Saturday afternoon in June changed everything. Movies, dinner and a quick whizz around the ice rink. What was I thinking? I have not put on a set of skates, roller or ice, for at least 20 years. Within 30 minutes of putting on those knife edge boots, I was hanging over the barrier trying not to throw up as I tried to make sense of my weird looking wrist. I had a few months where I was not able to sculpt, but I could type, and a project I had put off even thinking about jumped to the top of the list. Fast forward to today, my smiths’ fracture is healing well, I have a trophy scar, recovered full dexterity thankfully, can drive a car and most importantly I am sculpting again.
So what’s this all about…
I get 10-12 hours per week in my creative space, my supply chain job takes up the rest of my productive time, and I regularly get lost in trying to do more than realistically possible. I have note pads smudged with coffee stains, slips and glaze, scrappy bits of paper hiding in books, incomplete journals and log books, from parchment and quill to Microsoft office. I have several maquettes, works in progress wrapped in plastic, a disturbing pile of test tiles and list of ideas that need to be reviewed, curated, dumped or developed. In short, I have created my own admin nightmare.
To start, I want to organise and record my learnings, share my works warts and all, and complete the few pieces worthy of completion. I then want to set about selecting projects that invigorate and challenge me as a creative person. I am not sure what is next for me after ticking the box marked “organised chaos”. What I am sure about is clay, this humble and underrated chameleon-like material, has amazing diversity and I have only scratched the surface of possibility.
I believe that art should be accessible to everyone, and hope that the Clay Effect will develop into a place to support other aspiring artists on their clayative journey.