MA Ceramics Show 2026
Thursday 3rd September 2026
The End of One Journey, The Beginning of Another
Tomorrow, Friday 4 September, is IT — final assessment day, followed by the Private View of our final degree show. After two years of questioning, experimenting, making, failing, learning and, more recently, beginning to understand where my work is taking me, it is difficult to quite believe that the end is finally here.
The last two pieces came out of the kiln this week, much to my relief, although one hadn't fired quite as I had hoped. There was little time to dwell on it. They were quickly photographed and added to the collection of work from which we would select the pieces for the final show.
The quiet excitement, accompanied by an overwhelming sense of nerves, has been palpable over the last few days as we painted and positioned plinths, moved work around and tried to work out how best to present the culmination of two years of making. After much thought and discussion, the final pieces were selected and placed ready for their reveal at 5pm tomorrow.
Nine pieces.
On paper, nine pieces perhaps seems slightly insignificant when set against the enormity of the process that has brought me to this point. But the significance isn't really in the number of pieces sitting in the gallery. It is in everything I have learnt along the way.
There have been so many significant and pivotal moments throughout this journey — some exhilarating, some frustrating, some which left me completely bewildered. I have questioned almost everything at some point: why I was making something, whether it was authentic, whether I was saying what I wanted to say and, perhaps most importantly, whether I would ever find a connection to my own work.
I now understand that connection.
I have a much deeper understanding of the work I want to create, why I want to create it and the language I want it to speak to others. I have finally recognised my own path. I don't believe I have reached the end of it — quite the opposite. This feels like the beginning.
Tomorrow I will stand in the gallery surrounded by the work I have made as a result of the last two years. I am sure I will feel nervous, emotional, proud and probably slightly overwhelmed all at the same time. But I hope I will also be able to stand beside my work without questioning whether I have a right to be there.
Because I have learnt that the difficult days matter.
The uncertainty matters.
The failures matter.
They are the moments when I have learnt the most and when my practice has moved forward.
So as I close this chapter as an MA student, I am looking forward to seeing where the next one takes me. I want to embrace the difficult days, knowing now that they are often the points at which I learn and develop, and I will definitely celebrate the good days — because I now know that they are hard won.
This isn't the end of the journey.
It is the point at which I finally begin to walk the path.
Friday 11th September 2026
Well, as they say — That’s It Folks!
The MA Degree Show Private View was a wonderful evening. Everyone seemed to have a fabulous time and, for a few hours at least, the tiredness, nerves and self-doubt that had accompanied us through the final weeks seemed to drift away as we celebrated together.
But the biggest thing for me was something rather simple: I felt proud to stand beside my work.
I genuinely felt that I had achieved something during these two years, and somehow, standing there looking at the work, I could see that achievement reflected back at me. It was quite a moment.
A huge thank you to my family and friends who came along to the Private View and helped me celebrate the conclusion of two very hard-working years — and the rather surreal fact that I now have an MA after my name! It was lovely to be able to celebrate not just the end of the degree, but everything that has happened along the way.
And now, it really is time to leave.
I have officially packed away all my tools and equipment, gathered up the many ceramic exploratory vessels that have accumulated along the way, and vacated the building. I will return in a month to collect my work from the show, but for now I think I need a little time and space to process where I am — and, perhaps more importantly, where I would like to go next.
When I started writing this blog, it was very much a chore. Another thing on the list of things I had to do. Somewhere along the way, however, it became a much-valued part of my week. Writing down what had happened, what I had been thinking about, what had gone wrong (there was plenty of that!) and what I had learnt gave me the opportunity to stop and reflect rather than simply rushing on to the next thing.
So, I have decided that the blog will continue.
The focus will inevitably change. The MA has finished, and I am now faced with the rather daunting question of how do you transition from being a student to becoming a practising artist?
There are, of course, many different routes to take, and I am only just beginning to work out which one feels right for me.
At the moment, I think I would like to concentrate on exhibiting my work through galleries and exhibitions, rather than necessarily trying to sell through ceramic fairs several times a year. There are pros and cons to every route, and I suspect a lot of it comes down to finding what suits you — both as an artist and as an individual — and working out how best to put your work in front of the right audience.
I also think my work may have an appeal to interior designers and the more corporate end of the market. Quite how I put my work in front of that world, I have absolutely no idea… yet.
The first priority, though, is simply to make more work.
I need a body of work to show potential galleries, clients and exhibition selectors, so that feels like the obvious place to start. From next week, it will be back to my home studio: a good tidy-up, conversations with kiln manufacturers because, inevitably, I need a bigger kiln, and perhaps even the beginning of a spreadsheet listing the exhibitions and opportunities I might like to work towards over the next twelve months.
There is much to do.
And, I am rather looking forward to this new challenge.
