Marks inspiration comes from 17th Century Staffordshire slip trailing, mid-century Stoke-on-Trent industrial ceramics such as ‘Homemaker’ by Ridgway and Carlton Ware ‘Walking Ware’, and the sci-fi anachronisms of 1940s, 50s and 60s animations and comics. He likes to combine traditional craft and contemporary techniques in a modern take on Staffordshire slipware and flatbacks.
Currently, he is experimenting with using paper stencil shapes, derived from digital manipulation with Adobe Photoshop. These are cut out by hand, applied to the greenware clay surface and brush over with black body stained slip. The paper motifs act as a resist, and after peeling away from the surface, reveal the pattern underneath. Sources of influence, come from the beautiful patterns of the natural world and the stunning shapes of everyday objects observed under the electron microscope. 1950’s illustrated biology books of cell structure, also spark my visual interest and imagination.
