A childhood spent in the freedom of the outdoors in South Africa connects me to nature, being at once powerful and fragile, a dichotomy central to the objects I make. For example, the medium I use is natural, starting as a heavy, stodgy lump of the earth and I relish the opportunity to transform these alpha characteristics to be instead light, fluid and dynamic, more akin to the life supported by the earth. Living in a culture which has squeezed our experience of nature to be safe, managed and sanitized, I would like to raise awareness of our need for nature, so we understand how we are connected to life itself, and our significance in it.

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By creating objects for the home and garden I aim to reconnect people to the natural world by bringing it right into the centre of daily lives. Challenging preconceived ideas about everyday objects by involving tension in their use, I include tactile undulating and smooth forms, whilst retaining an uneasy sense of balance or fragility in the seemingly thin sheets of clay, again teetering between strength and oblivion.  The forms and surfaces reference the dense and abundant life found in the natural world from water, wide open landscapes and shadows to the plethora of forms found in foliage.. Furthermore, by creating objects for use outside, they demand that people spend time closer to nature.

 

Using objects made by people allows better connections between people – time, care and skill coming together to create objects for use that are full of difference, character and the mark of the human hand. Again, the sense of the individual, object and maker being significant as opposed to homogenized mass produced indifferent ‘style’, is an idea I would like to bring to our attention. By making objects to be used in shared experience – a meal at a table or food prepared over an open fire, connecting people is another important part of my work – creating talking points in the objects themselves too.