Soon after qualifying in Fine Art Sculpture in 1982, KAREN WILLIAMS moved to Japan for 3 years where she studied Shodo (Japanese calligraphy) whilst teaching English. This discipline encouraged her move to work with red earthenware in the slipware tradition but with the cultural slant of Japan entering her designs and decoration. Hand building with slabs, or pinching the soft clay gives her scope to develop interesting shapes and edging to her bowls and platters before pouring the slip, through which she makes the sgraffito ‘drawings’. Her inspiration comes from nature and the wild landscape around her Pembrokeshire home.