My wife and I set up the Kelso Pottery in 1970 and still run it after more than 50 years.

My 1975 Fellowship was to find out how craftworkers in Japan, Okinawa and Korea managed to make a living. I discovered that many of the families had eight to 13 generations working in their craft.

There was a continuing market for traditional handmade items there, which had largely disappeared in Britain. Teaching in local schools bridged our income gap. Back in Kelso I invested in labour-saving devices, built a new workshop using secondhand materials and designed a new outdoor pit kiln to develop ideas using local clays for decoration. These improvements were all prompted by my Fellowship studies.

The friendships I made in Japan and Okinawa have continued to this day.