After having three babies, I felt like I'd lost all sense of myself, so one Christmas I gave my husband a Jamie Oliver cookbook and a pinny and announced I was going to university. After completing both a BA & MA in Design at Plymouth Uni with 3 children under the age of 7, I specialised as a Designer Maker, working in ceramics. Basically I walked into the ceramics department and never left!!

At the heart of my work is the exploration of site specific folklore in Cornwall, where we live. This is expressed through choice of local materials, pattern & illustration. Folklore is about the everyday and being reachable, all expressed in a fun and illustrative way. The stoneware clay comes direct from an ancient pit in St Agnes just a few hundred yards from the sea, along with the some of the key glaze ingredients of china clay and tin which played such a vital role in Cornwall’s mining history.

I live with my husband and our three now teenage children on our organic smallholding, where we keep a small flock of sheep, pigs, poultry and a gorgeous pair of working horses. My husband and daughter are both keen growers and when they’re not working with the horses you can find them in the poly tunnel, growing as much veg as they can. My son Felix loves to carve spoons from our homegrown wood and Monty is often in the pottery studio playing his guitar while I throw pots. I know this sounds very much like we're living the good life and it totally is but it's also incredibly hard work and lots of blood, sweat and many many tears go into making this all happen.

The pottery is an important part of our life on the farm, living and working in the same place means I can nip out to the studio to check on my pots, returning hours later when supper is ready!