Whilst on a teacher training course Rosalie was introduced to clay and it quickly became her favourite medium. In 1979 Rosalie spent a year training in art and craft at Brighton Polytechnic and here learned a range of clay skills, glaze technology and mould making. This enabled Rosalie to teach art as a specialist subject in schools, whilst developing her own work.
Initially Rosalie experimented with raku, really loving the smoked surfaces and the crackled glazes and began to exhibit work in 1992. After 12 years, a change in workshop facilities led Rosalie to concentrate on working with stoneware clay.
Rosalie has always been inspired by forms and textures in the landscape and seashore, especially chalk cliffs and flint seams found locally. These have been starting points for textures on her pots. She uses layers of silicon carbide slip contrasting with coloured or neutral slips to organise elements into strata layering and striping. Surface results depend on thickness of glaze and heat in kiln to react together, fired to 1240 degrees in an electric kiln. Rosalie makes a range of forms, bowls, bottles and lidded pots on the wheel or hand building and coiling using a variety of grogged clay or St Thomas white clay.
