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Julie Miles

Where were you born?

Stoke-on-Trent which makes me a bit of a ceramic cliché and I come from a long line of pottery workers from brick makers to tile painters. My parents originally come from Newcastle-under-Lyme; I have never lived there, but moved from Shropshire to Lancashire when I was a teenager.

Where do you live now?

I live in Blackburn but my studio is in Barrowford.

Why did you become an artist?

I have always wanted to be an artist from an early age. I have a bit of a blip after leaving school and had a few different jobs for a while but went back to education when I was 22 and went on to Art College.

Why did you choose clay?

I went to college to study embroidery but it was a mixed media degree course and ceramics just drew me in. I still believed I would major in embroidery in my final year but my final show was all ceramic. I guess it is in my blood. I also see drawing, or mark making, an essential part of my practice it helps my thought processes when working on a piece.

How long does it take you to make a piece of work?

Not very long to produce the work, the thought and design processes and also the firing take up the most time. Not everything comes out of the kiln especially the thin fabric pieces using natural materials like leaves or flower heads but I'm slowly perfecting the techniques.

What strange things do you use in your work?

I suppose the idea of using barbed wire and fencing staples within my pieces is rather strange to some. They are elements in the landscape that are always there so I have brought them into the work. Some people find them quite disturbing.

Which tool can you not live without?

I have a scrapy tool that I use to pick up very thin pieces of clay, peeling it up from the edge; I also use it to clean my work surfaces, cut clay, clean tools and lots of other stuff. I bought it in the sale in the kitchen department at Habitat when I was a student and I have no idea what it's used for in everyday life but its called 'the tool I can't live without'. Honestly, my friend who is also a ceramic artist has one too and she can't live without it either!

What would you have been if you had not been an artist?

I don't know that's a hard question to answer. I have done many other jobs but none give me the satisfaction of creating something out of clay. Sometimes I can't sleep if I haven't worked with clay or been creative that day, strange I know.

www.juliemiles.co.uk