What draws me to ceramics is something instinctive, an attraction to the raw nature of the medium. I am drawn to forms that elicit emotion; austere or ornamental, amorphous or volcanic in nature. Work that seems to emerge from the elements themselves, or exist because of the hands of the maker.

I began by exploring the volcano as a mythological threshold between worlds; a place of transformation, emergence, and passage. As I worked with clay, faces began to appear intuitively. These faces became symbolic representations of souls, not in a strictly religious sense, but as human presences inhabiting that space between the elemental and the ephemeral.

Faces remain central in my work. They connect to my inclination toward memory and sentiment. Pattern has become an extension of this thinking. Influenced by my Dutch heritage, particularly Delftware, I use nerikomi, the Japanese technique of layering and stacking coloured clay, to build pattern into the body of the work itself. The process is intuitive and abstract, allowing pattern to emerge rather than be imposed.

I work spontaneously. Clay holds memory in a physical sense. Its particles respond differently depending on how they are handled. That sensitivity, that record of touch on natural clay, is something I want to preserve. Glaze, with its own beauty and elemental transformations, is used with intention, to sit in harmony with the clay.

I am also deeply interested in the relationship between form and function. I want my work to be used, held, touched, lived with. Beyond its form, each piece should carry a sense of presence and evoke a response; something felt rather than explained.

At its core, my practice is about connection: to material, to memory, and to the enduring simplicity of clay as earth shaped, fired, and brought into use. I’m not interested in overcomplicating that. I want to make pieces that are simple, honest, and beautiful.