I grew up in the UK, with parents who loved hiking. Consequently I spent some of the best (and some of the wettest and most miserable) holidays of my life walking around hills and mountains in England and Wales. Even though it was awful sometimes, it gave me an enduring connection with the outdoors. I learnt that going out is really going in - only when we leave civilisation behind do we really enter the world. Any wild, natural landscape will bring me joy, but for me the most magical places are the forests. Beyond the shapes and patterns that can be found there, I am inspired by the happiness we feel when we are surrounded by growing, living, ancient things, when we connect with the real, solid earth that we live on. It's that joy that I look for in my connection with clay, and the pieces that I make. I prefer to work instinctively. I don't usually do a lot of sketching or planning, I find I think better out loud, as it were, in 3D, with my hands on the clay. When I feel an experiment is finished, I can take a step back to think about where the work comes from, and then develop it in a more intentional way.