Featured artist of the month

Birds eggs, pebbles, rocks and strata, distant horizons, rivulets across the sand all come to mind when looking at Sally Woodford's raku fired ceramic sculptures. Picking up one of her pebble forms is a sensual pleasure and it is hard to resist running a hand over the abstract, standing forms.

Sally uses hand building methods and says of her work "this means each piece evolves slowly, enabling it to develop its own character, to become individual - each piece I make proves to be the catalyst for the next. Numerous other cultures and artists have influenced and inspired this body of work, some more obviously than others, but the most direct inspiration comes from my own collection of beach stones.

I attended an amazing foundation course at Colchester (1975-1977), made brilliant by the inspiring tutorage of Phillip Ardizzone, followed by a BA Hons 3D design course at Middlesex Poly (1977-1980) which I survived thanks to Mo Jupp and my boyfriend Mark. It was while at college I first experimented with raku , building a kiln on an extremely steep sided field in Somerset.

Sally Woodford lives and works in the West Wight where she has recently set up a new studio. Her 'Pebble' forms cost £65 and the larger sculptural pieces are £420 each.