For a period of time I sat at my pottery wheel and made pots. As I was working with clay I felt that was the very thing I should be doing with it. Making pots, domestic ware and such.

   There was this one particular day though, I remember so clearly. I sat at the wheel making cups and had this moment of such clarity, like I was surging up from under the water until my head broke through the surface and I took the deepest breath!   Why am I making cups? This is not what I'm meant to be doing. I packed everything up, cleaned my wheel and felt so much relief to have stopped.  My hands just did the next thing that felt good and instinctual and started making these giant beads. Over and over again, bigger and bigger until this magical pile of treasure appeared before me.
   It took me months to complete each bead, one pattern leading into the other filled with my excitement and happiness to be doing something I loved again.

Hence, Full Circle.

   The language I had developed as a child coming through strongly once again, reminding me of what had set me alight and bought be comfort from the very beginning, creating treasure with my hands and surrounding myself with beauty.    When working with pattern I create the design based off the symmetry of the form. This is a deeply intuitive process, combining the tactile nature of clay with fluid line work. It is a thrill seeing a piece come together, as it is the very first time I can see what has been created.

Photos by Samuel Hartnett