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Rosemary is the first to admit that she has an unusual background for an artist – a first degree in Biochemistry and Masters in medical research but artists come from a diversity of backgrounds and Rosemary hopes that her skills will help to access subjects from both art and science.

During the years Rosemary was raising a family of three children she was quite involved in schools. Over the years following her own children’s progression, she was a pre-school assistant in Sheffield, UK, then after she moved to California with her young family, an eleven week old baby, a two year old toddler and a four year old, she became a volunteer kindergarten teacher’s assistant and a ‘room mum’.

Five years later, when Rosemary’s family moved back to Sheffield, she became a part-time classroom assistant and a lunch time supervisor at her children’s elementary school. During these years, Rosemary also became very involved with running the Parent Teachers Association. The school had its own kiln but it had been unused and was in a sad state of disrepair for many years. As the Queens Golden Jubilee was approaching, the PTA decided to use their funds to repair the kiln and proposed an ambitious ceramic tile display to mark this royal occasion. This was the spark that initiated Rosemary’s enthusiasm for ceramics and working with clay. She attended a course in ceramics with the intention of working with children and handbuilding with clay.

Rosemary’s family first came to live in Calgary, Canada in 2006. A company, ‘Clay for Kids’, gave her the perfect opportunity to teach hand-building with clay, showing children how to make projects out of clay in many different schools and communities in Calgary. Some were special language schools, some were small rural schools in towns outside Calgary, one was a First Nation School on the Tsu Tina Reserve, one was a Hudderite colony school, another a special school for gifted children and an ESL school for adults new to Canada, another for profoundly disabled children. Rosemary taught over 900 classes and fired over 30,000 projects in a small 3 cubic foot electric kiln in her basement!

When Rosemary’s husband started his own engineering, teaching ‘clay’ took on a back stage as Rosemary took on a new role as her husband’s ‘office wife’. Rosemary moved to Squamish in 2016 with her husband and his new job. Finding some spare time to begin a new ‘hardwired adventure’ in Squamish and build a company of her own, Rosemary founded CLAYTIVITY in 2018.”