Nicky graduated from Falmouth College of Arts, Studio Ceramics in 2000 and had a busy practice which she gave up fifteen years ago to dedicate herself to a career in art therapy. The clay kept calling her back and during lockdown she commandeered the garden shed and dusted off her kiln.

The Bathers, Goddesses and Tall Figures celebrate Nicky’s love of the sea, the earth and the wild.

“The fabric and lace I have always used to make marks in the clay, come from my grandmothers - many bits have been mine for half a century and some pieces may be more than a hundred years old. I love their fragility and how I can reproduce and preserve the essence of each little bit in clay. My grandmothers taught me to make do and mend, that was their craft and I honour them by making my craft my work too.

I make my work from porcelain clay because I enjoy its potential for mark making and for its bone-like unglazed finish. I build by hand and enjoy the tension this creates in the clay, which causes shifts and subtle cracking in the firing, giving the finished pieces the ancient feeling of the archaeological artefacts that inspire me. I celebrate imperfection, variation and difference - no two pieces are the same.”