After a long and varied career in design and printing, Judy followed her passion for ceramics. At the age of sixty, she enrolled in a 3D Craft and Design BA at a local college, graduating with First Class Honours, and went on to complete an MA at the Royal College of Art, specialising in Nerikomi and Kintsugi. While at the RCA, she was invited to exhibit in China and was commissioned by ROSL to create a presentation plaque for a prize-winning musician.
Nerikomi is an ancient, time-consuming technique with endless possibilities for patterns, colour combinations, and forms. Judy works every element by hand, from colouring porcelain with stains and oxides to forming patterns and manipulating the clay into shapes. Although designs can be imposed, the clay often distorts and twists, giving each piece its own voice and creating unique patterns. After building and firing, each piece undergoes a meditative polishing process, producing a tactile, silky surface without glaze.
Sometimes tears occur in the porcelain due to drying or kiln temperatures. Rather than hiding these, Judy embraces them through the Japanese art of Kintsugi, highlighting mends with solid silver and celebrating the beauty of imperfection and fragility.
