what remains lies here
scattered on a wave cut shore
past present future

This first ‘haiku boulder’ is the result of a collaboration that has evolved over many months with Sue Spencer – a lecturer in nursing and health care at Northumbria University. As well as her day job Sue also tries to find time to write poetry and develop creative art projects. Sue has shown an interest in my work for a number of years and the idea of incorporating haiku into the boulder forms originated from a short course about poetry as public art that Sue attended led by the poet Linda France at Newcastle University in 2010.

I was a little apprehensive as to how the idea might develop but was blown away when Sue turned up at the studio one day with some beautiful, subtle words and, after borrowing some letterpress from Kim Lewis, I set to work finding ways to make the poems flow in and around the boulders.

I’m delighted that the first haiku boulders are already on display at Robinson-Gay Gallery and I can’t wait to see what new poems arrive in my studio over the next few months…

Bernie’s just done some gorgeous new photos of all my ‘Crumpled Vessels’. The pieces are all made from ‘paperclay’ (paper pulp added into the clay during the making process), decorated with various oxides and matt glazes, then fired up to stoneware (high temperature).

Above piece entitled ‘Viewpoint’ is now on show at Robinson-Gay Gallery in Hexham.

Below: I’ve been trying out some new glazes on my crumpled vessels – trying to lift them a bit with some brighter colours, contrasting with bronze interiors, especially liking the deep turquoise/bronze combo at the front of the pic.