About photo by Rachel Parry Cormac Boydell worked as a geologist in Australia and Libya before moving to Allihies, West Cork in 1972 and has has been working full time in ceramics since 1983. In making his work Boydell uses no tools, relishing instead the direct contact between hands and the clay. Boydell is keen to emphasis the importance of the process of making and that the nature of clay be apparent in the form and the texture of the resultant work. He uses a terracotta clay chosen because of the beauty of its orangey colour which is the perfect background to the colours he works with. His understanding of glazes can be described as an alchemy of bright, brilliant colours which has become a signature of his work. He exhibits extensively and his work is represented in public collections, including the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, the Ulster Museum, Belfast, the National Self Portrait Collection, Limerick, The Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dublin. © Des Doyle. Link to a radio interview by Eleanor Flegg broadcast on Lyric FM Summer 2013