I’ve really jumped out of my comfort zone this spring and have set up a YouTube channel.
Before COVID, regularly showing at trade fairs enabled me to meet the galleries and shops who stock my work – this last year they were all cancelled. In January, Top Drawer on Demand, became the online version of the UK’s leading design-led trade show, and I had to make a video presenting my stand – as I would do if I was at a real pre-pandemic show. The whole process was both mystifying and alarming, but it’s astonishing how quickly we can adapt – and now I’m embracing the whole video idea.
On my new YouTube channel, I want to show the environment where I live, work and (sometimes!) garden. I hope it will interest people who like pottery and design to see my workspace and how its geographical situation in south-west France influences my work. The hotter climate and brighter light certainly has a bearing on how I use and appreciate colour. Although I have a big garden I don’t manage to spend a lot of time gardening but it’s a space that I love being in and is massively important to me. At this time of year I’m drawn out of the studio several times a day, to check out what’s growing, which plants are about to flower, to watch and listen to the birds and talk to the chickens!
So my plan is to make videos that will provide a sample of all that, as well as showing you some of the processes and techniques that I use to make my work, both the pieces that will go to my stockists and the prototypes that will get sent further afield to become the moulds for a new “Maison” range. More on this subject coming soon!
In the meantime, if there’s anything you’d particularly like to see in the workshop – or the garden – just leave a comment on my YouTube channel!