Featured in DRIFT Journal - When Someone Else Tells Your Story
Featured in DRIFT Journal
When Someone Else Tells Your Story
There are moments in every creative journey that quietly stay with you.
Not because they change what you do, but because they remind you why you do it.
Being invited to feature in DRIFT Journal was one of those moments.
As makers, we're usually far more comfortable talking about the work itself than talking about ourselves. I would much rather spend a day carving clay than writing about my own journey! So when Jamie Crocker spent time learning about Alchemy Tiles, asking thoughtful questions and exploring the history behind my work, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.
When I finally read the finished article, I found myself reading it slowly.
Not because it was about me, but because it seemed to capture something I've always struggled to explain.
That Alchemy Tiles has never simply been about making ceramic tiles.
It's about stories.
It's about memory.
It's about creating something by hand that becomes part of someone's life.
Jamie begins by taking readers back through the centuries, tracing the remarkable history of encaustic tile making before arriving here in my little studio in Cornwall. He explains the traditional techniques that have inspired my work, while also recognising how my own practice has evolved into something instinctive and entirely freehand, where every line is carved by hand and every commission begins not with a drawing, but with a conversation.
One sentence stayed with me long after I finished reading:
"Just like the clay, the story reveals itself over time."
Those words felt incredibly personal because they describe not only how each commission develops, but also how this business itself has grown.
Alchemy Tiles wasn't built around trends or mass production.
It has been shaped slowly, one commission at a time, one story at a time and one conversation after another.
Every family, every home and every person I've worked with has left their own small imprint on this journey.
The article also reflects something that has become increasingly important to me over the years: the idea that handmade objects carry something beyond their physical form.
Every carved line records the movement of the maker's hand.
Every commission carries a memory, a place or a moment that someone has chosen to preserve.
By the time a piece leaves my studio, it holds far more than an image.
It holds a presence.
Reading the article reminded me how fortunate I am to spend my days doing work that feels meaningful.
To work with my hands.
To meet remarkable people.
To help tell stories that will, I hope, continue long after I've finished carving them.
I'm incredibly grateful to Jamie Crocker and the team at DRIFT Journal for taking the time to understand not only what I make, but why I make it.
If you'd like to discover more about the history of encaustic tile making, the inspiration behind Alchemy Tiles and the role that memory and craftsmanship play in every commission, I'd love you to read the full feature.
👉 Read "Method and Memory" in DRIFT Journal:
https://www.driftjournal.co.uk/post/method-and-memory
