I was born in Te Awamutu in the North Island of New Zealand but have spent most of my life in the South Island. My first memory of clay is as a young boy, discovering it when my father was digging out steps in a bank down at the bottom of our property, in Nelson. I made my first pots then and have been obsessed with clay ever since.

I graduated from Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, in 1976 with a Diploma in Fine and Applied Arts with Distinction in Design and Sculpture and a Certificate in Ceramics. Attracted by the landscape and lifestyle, I moved back to the West Coast, where I had spent my high school years, and built a studio and kilns at Kaniere, east of Hokitika where I have chosen to live and work.