Like all of us out there, I’m doing my best to stay home and stay safe – but whenever I do go for a walk with my dog as part of our daily exercise, our favourite thing to do is rainbow spotting! Rainbows are popping up everywhere, and thanks to the Facebook group (Chase The Rainbow) and Twitter hashtag (#chasetherainbow), people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds are getting involved by creating their own rainbows and placing them in their windows for passers-by to see and bring smiles to their faces. I always enjoy challenges like this, simply because they can be approached in any w ..read more

Title: Stolen Freedom Medium Used: Porcelain, transparent glaze, platinum Size : Height 32cm, Width 15cm, Depth 18cm I have a memory pushed to the back of my mind of walking through the dry streets of Delhi and on my left coming out of a side lane was a man dressed in a long cotton suit, in his hand was a chain and next to him was macaque walking on two legs, around his neck was a thick metal choker. Now I recall this image with deep sadness that a person can be so cruel and have such a misinformed sense of self-entitlement and ownership of the land and the lives upon it. I hav ..read more

When embarking on any new hobby, it can be pretty overwhelming to see all the tools available on the market and it is possible to waste an awful lot of money when you are just starting out. I think I may own every single sculpting tool ever invented; wooden ones, stainless steel ones, plastic ones, rubber ones, large ones, small ones, hooped one, sharp ones, blunt ones, round ones, …last month I bought a dentistry set.   I want to share the Top 5 sculpting tools that you need as an animal sculptor. these are the ONLY tools I ever use – the rest just sit there and make ..read more

I thought I’d share the inspiration behind my new work ‘ Hope for the Sumatran Elephant,’ hand sculpted from porcelain, decorated with a transparent glaze. This elephant was sculpted from porcelain and handcrafted over paper. The sculpture was left to dry over 2 weeks and after the bisque I applied a transparent glaze over the piece which brought out the colour in the blue porcelain butterflies. Butterflies seem to be working as a running theme through my work and I think it’s a mixture of their delicacy and symbolism which resonates with me. This piece was inspired by a traditional story ..read more

Pablo Picasso once said… ‘We are all born an artist, the problem is how to remain one as we grow up…”. Pushing aside my reservations for showing enthusiasm for Picasso in this one area, he certainly gets me thinking; where does our creativity go? If you ask a 5 year-old to draw you a picture, they will, unsurprisingly, come up with artwork that is fundamentally non-representational in the traditional sense. The mistake we make is to dismiss the art as bad – just because a person doesn’t have blue hair, or a donkey isn’t pink etc. We tell the child to us the correct colours, colour within the l ..read more

Here are the last Grandfathers Frosts of the season, before I say goodbye for another year.  I’m not going to lie, it was a relief to tidy the table in the front room and put my paints away ready for something different! This Grandfather frost was a gift for my mother, it is decorated with koi and is giving the gift of an amethyst to the receiver.  The amethyst is symbolic of good health, happiness, love and courage – if I could give my mum any gifts in the world it would be those things   The amethyst is also my mums February birthstone, the water represents her water sign and ..read more

So, I have made the very last of my Grandfather Frosts and the season has drawn to the end as the New Year has begun with the reminder that spring is on it’s way. I have had a lot of ideas for next year’s Santa’s and I feel I have plenty of ideas to develop to make next year’s project bigger and better – but if I have learnt anything it is that having a project is the way forward. I planned to create 8 Santa’s to illustrate the stanzas in the poem A Gift for Grandfather Frost and I achieved this.  Here are the eight in the collection, all hand sculpted from porcelain, fired, gla ..read more

Fundraiser – Enter for just £5 All of my inspiration comes from our animal friends and some of the wonderful, selfless people who put their own lives on hold to be a voice to the animals who do not have one. One of the people is Izabella St James who runs the Pug Queen Foundation to help pugs in need all around the world. Recently she has been involved with organisations in China; as there are no legislative protections in place for animals in this country many dogs are victims of the incredible brutal and inhumane Meat Trade, along with local abuse, neglect and abandonment ..read more

What was the inspiration behind my 2019 Santa Clauses? Walking through the streets of Budapest at every handmade shop window stands small carvings of Ded Moroz, the symbol of Russias Winter. Nests of matryoshka dolls adorn the shelves and the idea of using my sculpture as a canvas for a painting came to me. The direct translation for Ded Moroz is Grandfather Frost and I thought I’d use this to describe my Santa collection. It started with a Poem, ‘A Gift for Grandfather Frost’ In each stanza Grandfather Frost connects with a different animal, suggesting that the magic of Christmas comes with ..read more

Like all of us out there, I’m doing my best to stay home and stay safe - but whenever I do go for a walk with my dog as part of our daily exercise, our favourite thing to do is rainbow spotting! Rainbows are popping up everywhere, and thanks to the Facebook group (Chase The Rainbow) and Twitter hashtag (#chasetherainbow), people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds are getting involved by creating their own rainbows and placing them in their windows for passers-by to see and bring smiles to their faces. I always enjoy challenges like this, simply because they can be approached in ..read more