I hand build with a smooth white clay using pinch and coil techniques. I aim to make elegant forms, often following an urn-like silhouette and almost always on very small base, precarious but balanced. Only recently have I produced a few pots that are orderly and classical in shape, my preference is for mild disorder, most commonly by stretching, tearing and peeling the upper edges. I confess I have always had an aversion to perfection.

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When the piece is leather hard I burnish it with a small heart shaped rose crystal given to me by my son Jordi when he was around 7 years old. It never fails to to produce an amazing sheen that is absolutely essential to give me the perfect surface. It will now best receive the smoke drama I want to capture.Bisque firing is sufficient for my purposes and the burnish survives it. The work is now ready to be smoke fired, and I do this in the confined volume of a ceramic bbq, burning with humble newspaper, wood shavings and dry grass or straw. Only once have I experimented with controlling a smoke firing and I did this utilising limited areas of slip followed by scratching. I still have it and it's admired by many but for me it's a novelty piece.

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Without interference the fire will produce markings that vary in colour, intensity and complexity that never fails to astonish me; all hail Earth, Air, Fire and Water.