I left Belfast at 18 to do a Social Studies degree in Nottingham but dropped out after a year to spend three years designing T-shirts, be unemployed, and basically working on becoming an alcoholic and drug addict.

I was saved, quite literally, by a ceramics evening class and then went on to do a BTEC foundation in art and design, before coming to Bristol for my BA. After my MA in Ceramics at Cardiff, finishing in 1992, I built a studio and huge kiln for large-scale ceramics. I undertook some big projects, including lead artist on a multi-media Year of the Artist project in 2000, before illness and children prompted a change in direction. I then started working as a freelance lecturer. Naturally in teaching, you’re more required to have a PhD.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get an HRC grant when I applied to the University of West England. I spoke to [RCA tutor] Alison Britton at British Ceramics, where she was a judge. I was aware of the Royal College of Art but never made that initial contact until then.

One of the key things about doing research is how your approach to language changes, and how the terms and the way you talk about things change. I’m reading a huge amount. Writing for me has really come to the fore. I had a big shift, which came from being here at the RCA. Initially, I came with a project that was based on combining digital technology with handmaking. The big shift is that I decided not to develop a new technique, or skills or materials, but to examine skills through writing and our relationship with ceramics using two sites: the domestic space and the studio. Understanding the ontology and bodily response to materials, object orientation ontology and movement philosophy are some of the core ideas I'm exploring.

The RCA really is a wonderful place to study – it’s the sheer number of talks, seminars, lectures, symposiums that take place. Some of these have changed the way I think about things. For example, a talk by John Thackara last year – his big thing is sustainability and design – was very forceful. It made me think and really want to examine why we produce stuff. For me now, it’s less about making products.  Being here at the RCA has given me the confidence to take that risk, in not making. 

I studied a BA Applied Arts at Rochester in Kent from 2007 to 2010 and took a year out after to work as an intern with the artist and ceramicist, Kate Malone.

On my BA, I worked with ceramics, glass and wood, but then ended up specialising more in ceramics. It’s the malleability and fluidity of the material, the distortion in the kiln and the rich colour of the glazes. I wanted to study glass in the same way – thinking about this fluidity you can have.

I’m from Italy, but had been coming here to London in the summer to English courses for one or two weeks. I felt if I really wanted to learn ceramics, then the RCA was the best place, not anywhere in Italy. I knew about the RCA from researching well-known artists – they were all graduates.

While I was working in London, I rented a studio in my year out, working on my ceramics pieces from my BA trying to develop them, and got more into a functional way than a sculptural. But I felt I needed more skill under my belt and more knowledge of the materials. I felt a masters was the best way to learn this.

The first six months of the programme were easier and more relaxed than the latter six months. There were lots of projects in the beginning, from one on the Victoria & Albert Museum collection to help you explore your technique and research the ceramics material to one with Waddeston Manor, where we had to create a product that could be sold as a gift in the shop. After that, I felt like I had to try more to create something new, something that could give me more technique, so it was around February or March, that I felt a bit lost. Sometimes there is so much you can explore – it was hard to come in with a finished piece.

The important thing was to try not to discourage myself, I felt I couldn’t reach anything in this exploration phase. I was exploring materials and techniques, then going back into books, into the library and then going back and making. It began to be about working to the inside out of form. We are always more interested in the inside of things – we are looking more inside our bodies, at what is contained. Working with ceramics and glass, with the glass being transparent, I can work more into the structure on the inside. You can look to the inside of the form. My ceramics form the support. For ceramics, I always use slip casting. I like that I can change the form afterwards slightly. For glass, I have someone that blows for me and I distort the shape.

At the College, it’s important to organise yourself and find the best time to work. It might be better to work early in the morning and then go to the library and research, or then go back to work late afternoon. I always work until late night because it is quiet and I can concentrate much more. When it’s close to deadline, it’s always really busy. There’s so much tension in the place, you need to be focused. You need to book kilns a week in advance, but there’s always room as you can share these.

When I approach my work now, I try to think about what I really want to say with my piece, not just that 'I like this bit here', or 'that bit there'. I try to think about where I want to go in the future. I’m moving more into a design area than sculptural.  

During my year out, I worked seven days a week and saved hard. I was lucky to get a bursary to come here, but I do also still work during term time – one or two days a week for a South London ceramicist. When I finish, I’d like to set up my own studio and produce my own work for a gallery like Adrian Sassoon.