Charlotte Jones English, b. 1958

I walk every morning for at least an hour in my rural landscape with my small dog, I love the rhythm of the walks, noting the changes each day brings. It might be a colour, pattern, sound or texture that sparks an idea. Feeling at ease with my surroundings and looking carefully at details informs my work, so design decisions become intuitive.

My pots are made from white stoneware clay coloured by small amounts of clay I find, rust, grog from a stream and oxides. I recall days digging and collecting, it might have been windy, cold even sunny! This gives personal identity to my work, it's about my environment and my relationship with it. This physical process is important along with sketching and drawing. What I see, how I see and how I feel.

The process of making my pots has evolved over the last 16 years. Each stage I need to enjoy and use tools and equipment familiar to me. I throw the bases, coil and slab the layers of colour pinch the rims then scrape and burnish before once firing.

The pots are made in families to echo my own, thrown bases are made in 3s or 5s; these are strong because of the circular motion of the wheel and the fastest way to make individual forms. Also it gives me a perfect circle to coil on to. The coils are of different sizes and might be made of layers, I love coiling and hand building, it's slow and thoughtful after the speed of throwing. At each stage the pot is wrapped in plastic so it becomes the same moisture content throughout. The rims are pinched to resemble the riven edged slates on the chapel roof and the shape of the asymmetrical vessel.

Pushing the leather hard clay molecules together gives the pot a strong and waterproof finish and as I want to produce a tactile pebble surface, using a pebble to burnish the leather-hard pot seemed sensible! The pots echo beach stones tumbled in the surf, and time weathered rocks.

After years of travelling, Charlotte came with her family on a boat to live in Cornwall in 1989. With her partner Ron Jones, a furniture maker and their three sons, they converted derelict Trenoweth Chapel into their home and workshops.

In 1993 Charlotte completed the Foundation course, Falmouth College of Art  and in 2001 a BA (Hons) Studio Ceramics, Falmouth College of Arts.

Since then Charlotte's work has been exhibited throughout the UK and in Europe, her pots are in collections worldwide and her pots appear in local and national press – having recently featured in The Guardian magazine.