It was an interest in ceramics that drew Alison Fisher to study in the Potteries where she met Phil Hayes, the potter, and it has been pottery that has been their love and work ever since. For a quarter of a century Alison and Phil, from Pwllheli, have been potters specialising in ceramic sculpture. The couple use a variety of different methods to make almost exclusively animal subjects, accentuating certain characteristics and reducing others to capture the essential features of the animal and a sense of its movement. Alison predominantly produces raku fired ceramic sculptures. Raku is a way of firing ceramics based on an ancient Japanese method. Alison’s raku pieces are biscuit fired to about 1000 degrees C this takes about 12 hours. When it has cooled one can apply the various glazes, re-pack them into the kiln and fire it again to roughly the same temperature until the glazes are molten. Once the kiln is at full heat, the glowing red pots are removed using long handled steel tongues and plunged into fireproof containers of sawdust or other combustible material. This produces masses of smoke which blackens the unglazed areas and creates various effects on the glazes. After the soot and ash has been scrubbed away the delicate lustres and dark crackle lines are revealed. Due to the low firing temperature raku ware is porous and therefore is best not immersed in water so to keep it clean just give it an occasional dusting with a dry soft brush.