Designer
CurrentMy design ethos is underpinned by the hands-do attitude instilled in me during the various stages of my education and career in ceramics. Having first encountered clay at St Edward’s in Oxford aged thirteen, I continued the subject throughout secondary school, making the most of the Ceramics, Design and Art departments available to me. Following a summer jaunt city hopping around Europe, I decided to opt out of a year travelling in order to pursue my passion for making and enrolled on an Art Foundation course. Frequent visits to London as a teenager (most of which my parents knew about) left a lasting impression and I decided to move there permanently in 2003 to study BA Ceramics at Camberwell College of Art and Design. Upon graduation in 2006, I spent a year working as an assistant at Maze Hill Pottery, before completing a successful four-year apprenticeship with esteemed potter and writer Julian Stair. In 2011, I won the Cockpit Arts Award, which subsequently enabled me to set up my first studio at Cockpit Arts Deptford. Championed by visionaries such as Priscilla Carluccio, and Sir Terence and Lady Vicki Conran (who own my Edition Of Fifty Cups), I quickly established myself as a leading figure in Britain’s ‘designer-maker’ generation.A timely meeting with renowned product designer Robin Levien at the 2013 Homes and Gardens Designer Awards (I was a ‘Young Designer’ nominee) would go on to have a profound influence on me. Robin understood my keen appetite for design and encouraged me to commit to a future as an industrial designer as opposed to a potter. This proved to be a very liberating move and I count myself fortunate to be able to call Robin both a friend and mentor.The following year, recognised for my positive attitude towards both craftsmanship and industrial design, I was awarded a scholarship from the Royal Warrant Holders Association’s charity, The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust.
