My work has always had a relationship to geography. At university I explored the idea of litter as a mapping device. In different places different litter would accumulate, revealing the unique identity of that location, and thus, mapping it.

I walked in the streets, fields and woodlands collecting litter, logging the street-names, locations, and the time. I collected a library of rubbish and I drew maps. The collections were a record of the places I had walked. The practice became a method of exploration, a way to see and understand more about the places I pass through.

Last year I made a sculpture from plastic waste given to me by my neighbours. The sculpture held within it a tangle of stories and relationships – Maggie from up the road feeds stray cats, so she had loads of milk bottles. Jim and Pauline from next-door popped over in the evenings to give me the plastic packaging their microwave dinner.

I was collecting plastic from the ground when I discovered veins of wild clay on a construction site close to where I used to live. I built a crude device to process the clay and I became fascinated with the material. I travelled to Mexico and studied clay-types and their regional origins. Over the last 6 months I have been exploring the sculptural potential of clay and now I am ready to start exploring ways I can integrate methods of walking, collecting, and logging into my ceramic practice. Working via the AA2A scheme will enable me to experiment and test how different found materials, such as sand and gravel, respond to different firing methods and temperatures. I would also like to begin exploring glaze production and experiment with modifying clay bodies using found material.