OUR STORY
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After moving to Anglesey with her parents when she was 16 Alison left again only a year later to study at Walsall School of Art on a foundation course and it was here that she met Phil Hayes. She chose Stoke-on-Trent Polytechnic to do her degree course where she was taught by John Webber and Derek Emms.
Phil Hayes returned to pottery at Art School aged 21. After three years also at Stoke-On-Trent Polytechnic Phil graduated the year before Alison and shortly afterwards in the summer of 1977 they set up their first workshop together in an old watermill on the Isle of Anglesey.
They have been full time potters ever since and have enjoyed the challenge of making almost anything in clay, but since moving to the Llyn Peninsula in 2001 they have focused on hand modelled ceramic animals. Phil is particularly inspired by his love of sheepdogs and his latest muse is their 4yr old Welsh sheepdog cross Huntaway 'Joni'
They both work in "Raku," creating their wonderfully tactile pieces. Raku generally refers to a type of low-firing process that was inspired by traditional Japanese firing. Western-style Raku usually involves removing pottery from the kiln while at bright red heat and placing it into containers with combustible materials.
It has been this pottery method that has been their love and work ever since.