Studio and Process Notes

My principal medium is enamel, a thin layer of glass fired onto metal. I am passionate about this wonderful material and the vast array of beautiful surfaces and qualities that may be created.

All pieces begin with drawing. I see the initial drawing process as a ‘rehearsal’ for the permanent marks to be cut; areas are removed by the laser, describing space, lines creating shadows on the wall behind forming the ‘double’; connecting the artwork, wall and panel. Subsequently, the layers of enamel, fragile yet hard and permanent, interrupt the juxtaposition of the cut spaces, each meticulously drawn, scratched, abraded and engraved. This introduces an element of ‘chance’, the artwork being fired and re-fired several times, the handmade mark unpredictable and intimate.

Cutting, incising and piercing have been part of my vocabulary of making for most of my life. In the early days as a practicing ceramist I intricately incised and pierced very thin and fragile bone china forms. These incisions, lines and holes created energetic movements around and across the forms. The act of cutting through stainless steel with a laser is much more extreme – the high heat required to cut the steel slightly deforms the metal creating physical tensions in strong contrast to the original intricate mark making. I am aiming for an ever-increasing level of intricacy and complexity.