On appropriating cultural icons... Museums are fabulous places to find inspiration. Whether I'm walking around the British Museum or the V&A, I always manage to gravitate to the ceramics displays. I particularly love, for obvious reasons, the Japanese, Chinese and Korean sections. Within those, my favourites have to be Korean moon jars. They're beautiful in their simplicity, which is possibly what draws me to them. Built to store foodstuffs, usually rice, keeping them safe fr

Getting on the desert flower bandwagon... As a journalist, I see homewares trends come and go but cacti seem to be here to stay, for a while at least. Although my hand-painting skills are somewhat lacking, I thought rather than fashion a few Prickly Pears, I'd have a go at decorating a few bowls. With some Pintrest inspirational my side, I selected underglazes in a variety of greens and yellows and got started... The results, I think, aren't too shabby. I'll never be a master

Size isn't everything, you know... I used to know a lady who specialised in making jugs and I always wondered why she insisted in stick to one form when there are so many others with which to experiment. Well, that was until I tried my hand at a simple tapered form (no old-fashioned fat bellied jugs for me!) and was hooked. Then friends started asking me to make them a jug, too. As with interior styling traditions, I like to make then in batches of three or five and they all

Inspired by Abstract Expressionism - or just splashing about? You decide... I once went to a college to talk to them about a ceramics course and was told in no uncertain terms that my 2-D supporting work (i.e. drawings) was not up to snuff! In fact, I'd probably have to do a drawing module before I even started on the playing with clay part. Well, bugger that for a game of soldiers. I walked out without doing the required English and maths test (!) and decided that day to bui

The price is right... I often get asked to make mugs but they're fiddly little buggers. First you've got to get them all the same height and width (let's be clear here, I'm no production potter, in fact if skill level is judged by the 10,000 pot rule, I'm barely off the starting line). Pulling a handle is as uncomfortably sexual as it sounds and as difficult as getting a decent date on a Friday night (not for me now you understand, I have the company of the lovely Mr B), then

Tired of turning? Try a taper... I'm frankly too lazy to make and fire chucks for turning difficult pieces such as jugs and vases so have developed a signature style that requires neither! It's not lazy, it's pragmatic. Honest, Guv. All the jugs, mugs and vessels I'm currently making are fired pretty much as they are thrown (apart from a little smoothing and fettling). I do think they're better for modern living - a flat bottomed vessel in the dishwasher doesn't collect water