A lion trainer? Not quite, but being an accountant usually means you want to do anything else but what you are trained for!

Finally, after 20 years in the auditing profession, Mike gave up his job to pursue other interests. Pottery always came second to his full-time accountancy career until about nine years ago when an opportunity arose to go self-employed.

Ever had one of those days?

Now working from home for a handful of clients, Mike has found time to devote to his pottery skills, which has proved to be an amazing journey through all that is possible with a bag of wet clay!

In the same year he won through to the final round of the Midlands Artist of the Year with more of his slab-built work. Then in 1993 he won a prize in the Nottingham Box Art competition with his 3D harbour scene. Mike then moved onto figures and had great success with those too.

Mike has won awards for his life-like figures

His most notable piece was a three-foot model of Lara Croft which certainly attracted attention whenever he had it displayed on his stall. Then it was on to fishing boats, and now his latest work - copper matt raku pots.

Mike then felt he needed a web site to display his work, so he set about designing his site. Having enjoyed putting together his pottery site Mike turned to a village site for Groby.

Needless to say Mike now has several sites under his belt and is currently working on two school sites. So what next? - to which Mike would reply 'it depends on what door opens next'!