Blossoming talent

‘Joyful. That’s a key word to describe my ceramics,’ explains Rachael Cocker, nodding to her collection of plates and platters. In myriad bright and vivid colours, they depict her signature stylised, freehand floral motifs in subtle symmetry. ‘The joy that comes from making my pieces and bringing that to someone’s home is at the root of my work.’

The whitewashed walls of her large attic studio, nestling under the eaves of a 17th-century listed building in the coastal