May Ling Beadsmoore (Beardsmore)

The top of the dish looks familar but the mark doesn't and I haven't been able to find anyone with those initials.

May Ling Beadsmoore

Once Potty mentioned the name it got me thinking that I hadn't hear anything about her for awhile so I tried to find out what she had been up to recently and drew a blank.

The spelling of her surname "Beadsmoore" that Potty used didn't seem quite correct to me, as I thought that it was "Beardsmore". Searching the web shows that both spellings were used, the former in BSPM and Phil Roger's book on salt glazing and the latter in Ceramic Review, the publication of the CPA of which she was a member. There don't appear to be any references to her after 2004 so no email to contact her to find the correct spelling.

I was able to find out that she was born in Derby in 1970 and after leaving school went to work in a bank before starting a ceramics course at the University of Derby in 1992. After university, she worked with Josie Walter for a time before becoming independant in 1996, potting in her home town.

So she appears to have stayed in and around Derby for the first 34 years of her life but what then?

She's now potting under the name of May Ling Mason, since marrying her fellow potting partner Andy Mason. I've attached a pic of what I suppose could be described as one of her 'signature' pieces which fits very cosily in my humble pot collection.

That reminds me DD that about a year ago I came across a stoneware circular cake stand or the like marked as follows and forgot to report back: -