'We can all remember everyday objects from our childhood homes that were put to continual use - a picnic blanket for family outings; cushions on the sofa; or a favourite mug - representing a period of our lives to us by evoking many layers of memories through repeated use, and becoming symbols of the environment they belong in. In this way they rise above their original functionality to achieve a talismanic status. These objects are far more likely to be humble, functional items than the decorative ones placed out of harm's way on the mantelpiece or shelf.

Sometimes, these objects can reveal a period of family history that provides a window onto larger events of significance to everyone. For example, in my parents' kitchen there is a heavy, off white china bowl, used for salads and rice. This bowl was given to my mum over 50 years ago when she was thirteen years old and had been airlifted out of Eastern Germany (where she was born) to Wiesbaden in the west after the Allies partitioned Germany post World War II. My mum, her two brothers and their parents were put in temporary accommodation in barracks, and everyone was given the same basic equipment for their new lives as refugees - including one bowl each for meals. The fact that this bowl is now in a kitchen in south east England and still used pleases me very much - it represents for me the journey that my mum made from a young girl in post war Germany to the comfortable house she lives in now.

It is for these reasons that I make functional ceramics. I would like to think that some of my work might achieve this symbolic status in another family's lives by becoming a well-used and familiar part of their domestic scenery.

Since January 2007 I have been working on a range of patterns inspired by memories of such items, and have named them after family members that they represent to me. For example, 'Johnny' comes from a shirt that my dad wore when I was very young - one of my first memories is of my vision being completely filled with the pattern in the weave of this shirt as my dad carried me. 'Christa' is an adaptation of a pattern on a set of plastic herb containers that were on a shelf in my aunt's kitchen and 'Ingrid' is from a cushion that my mother embroidered.'