Sally Newing

I have been making pottery since 2000, having attended a pottery class to make up the numbers & keep a friend company! > Bizarrely, I enjoyed it so much that when the friend left I stayed. 

I am a professional nurse & want to be clean, tidy & well presented to care for patients. In contrast, as a potter I am getting clay under my nails & having dusty, filthy clothes. At times I look a fright. But I love it! I love feel of the clay in my hands, the mess in the workshop & spending quality time with my old teacher! 

I share the workshop with Graham who was my teacher & now my husband. So I use the same materials as him but manage to produce a different style. We are lucky enough to live close to the Pembrey Country Park & its beach with views across to Gower. Walking on the beach with its soft sand, ribbon shaped seaweed & large shells provides ideas for decoration. I use the garden, its produce & the fish pond to inspire shapes. 

I like the idea of practical pots but enjoy breaking out & creating decorative forms for fun. Some of my pots are decorated by dipping in glaze & cutting through it, while I add clay shapes to others. I am amazed how a pot can be created so quickly when thrown on the wheel. The challenge of creating the shape & then refining it is exciting & at times hugely frustrating but at the end, to see a glazed pot that I made & someone would like to buy, gives me such a buzz.