Ceramics
Background
My involvement with clay began in 1996 when living in Sussex. I had recently stopped wood turning after ten years due to health problems caused by wood dust and was looking for a new medium in which to work.
I obtained some clay from a local brickworks and made some pots which they fired. I was soon hooked on clay and with a second-hand wheel and a small kiln, proceeded to learn how to make pots. I attended an 'Introduction to Ceramics' course in the evenings and borrowed books from the library. It was not long before I was producing saleable pots which I took to craft fairs.
Most of my work was thrown earthenware which I glazed with ready-made glazes. I was frustrated at not being able to throw the shapes that I really liked and gradually changed to coiling as my preferred technique.
The Process
I became interested in smoke fired pots and decided to concentrate on producing individual pots using this method of decoration, and to sell through galleries.
Each
pot begins as a shallow press moulded, thrown or coiled base which is
centred onto a wooden bat with a bead of clay.
This is then placed onto a home-made banding wheel on which the pot is
built using extruded coils.
When leather hard the pot is scraped smooth and burnished using a variety
of knife handles and spoons. 
The bisque firing is at 900°C, any pots that are to have lustre
decoration are glazed with a lead sesquicilicate based glaze.
I use this as it matures at 960°C and leaves the unglazed areas porous
enough to accept carbon during the smoking process. 
As
my pots are either decorative or non-functional, the problems associated
with lead glazes and certain foodstuffs do not arise.
Metallic lustres are painted onto the glazed areas and fired to 750°C.
Smoking takes place inside a dustbin that has 10mm holes in its sides
at regular spacing.
The pots are placed inside and covered with sawdust. 
A
fire is lit on the sawdust and allowed to turn to charcoal before the
flames are extinguished when the lid is put on.
A metal flue with a damper has been riveted to the lid and gives a degree
of control as it burns.
The holes in the side of the bin also serve this purpose, some being
plugged with clay for more carbonisation or left open if a flash of oxidation
on an area of pot is desired.
The smoking takes about twelve hours, when cool the pots are cleaned
and polished with marbie wax.
Ideas
Inspiration
comes from many sources, I like the flowing lines of the Art Nouveau
period, classical pot shapes that are so pleasing to the eye, and as
a gardener of over twenty five years, plant forms and the beauty of things
found in nature.