Peter Hayes has always been interested in the history of ceramics - why and how 'things' are made of clay. This interest was extended after he spent several years travelling through Africa working with various tribes and village potters and being intrigued how, with limited technology and basic tools, they were able to get such exquisite, beautiful surfaces. He found the same inherent skills in India, Nepal, Japan and New Mexico. He tried to adopt the ideas picked up from his travels in his own work; by building up layers of textured clay combined with burnishing and polishing of surfaces, trying to achieve opposites of rough and smooth.
Peter has been working on large scale ceramic forms which have been placed in the landscape. His main aim is that the work should not compete with the landscape, but evolve within the environment. With this in mind he has introduced other minerals into the Raku ceramic surface such as iron and copper. With the elements of time and erosion, the individual piece takes on its own developing surface.
'It is joyful to work with many different materials. Each has its own character, its own limits, its own tolerance - some materials fight back, some play the game'.