NEW WORK

In April and May this year, I spent a month at the British Ceramics Biennial studio in Stoke-on-Trent as part of a residency. It was a chance to develop ideas and explore themes that I have been interested in for some time.

Since winning the Fresh Prize in 2025, I have been busy testing out a plan for my next series of sculptures: a collection of ceramic stools with clay tops and wooden legs. I am intrigued by the challenge of bringing these two materials together. There is the practical side of it, understanding clay shrinkage, reducing stresses, designing strong forms and working out stronger ways of fixing the pieces together.

The residency gave me some much-needed time to sit and reflect on my practice. Since leaving university, I have been slogging away between a litany of part-time and full-time jobs, while trying to develop my own work alongside them. It was refreshing to have some time to decompress and focus solely on my practice. I was able to make some interesting new connections within my work, which have opened up a few avenues that I want to explore further.

Did any of you ever see the Sky programme from the 2010s called Moone Boy, with Chris O’Dowd? Nope? Well, most people didn’t. That’s not the point. The programme follows a boy and his imaginary friend in the town of Boyle, in County Mayo, Ireland. The boy is quite odd. Anyway, also not the point.

I loved this programme growing up, and there is one segment I remember particularly well. The family go on holiday and, while unpacking Patrick’s bag, his mum exclaims that it is far too heavy. What is it full of? Rocks?

Rocks, no. Boyle soil, that’s what it was.

Patrick had brought a suitcase full of soil from home with him on holiday, so that if he became stressed or homesick, he could return home simply by standing on his own soil.

I have moved around a lot in my life. I grew up across three different continents, and after eventually returning to the UK, I developed quite an attachment to my home county of Yorkshire. In my practice, I often look towards materials and their chemical histories, or the social histories that become embedded within objects. I find that I carry all sorts of transitional objects with me as I move around the plane of life.

The stools are made using clay sourced from an ironstone mine in the North Yorkshire Moors. It is a clay I have used often, and I see it as a tie to home. When I use it, my work becomes grounded back to that place.

The stools I am making are almost there. I have sat on them, and there is already a palpable feeling of something connecting my current position with home. A portal, perhaps. A conduit.

These stools are my Boyle soil.