Meet the maker Helen Komatsu

I have been working with clay since the mid-1990s, when I combined evening adult education classes with running a PR firm.

These days, my studio is a cedar chalet in the garden in rural Kent. My art is autobiographical and personal. Each piece incorporates what is around me and important to me, either figuratively as motifs drawn into the clay, or physically when I manipulate important objects to stamp, sprig or to texture the clay.

The slab-building technique I use can be quite physical and leaves marks of its making in finger and hand prints which I encourage and do not seek to erase.

The process of decorating is a celebration of colour and texture, building up rich surfaces with slips and glazes, often with multiple firings.

Every piece starts as a sketch on paper. Yet this is simply a starting point. Each sculpture must be an adventure. I strive to ensure that every work involves a sense of ‘flight’ or letting go so that the unplanned and unexpected can occur.

I work in clay because I enjoy the feel of the material. In a bland block of brown or white earthenware I can see a limitless potential not found in any other medium.

Most of all, I enjoy the raw alchemy of the ceramic process: earth, water, air and fire are all required in the transformation from raw earth to a permanent completed piece.