It is with great sadness that I need to inform everyone that our dear friend and colleague, Gwen Heeney, passed away yesterday. Gwen had been bravely battling cancer for a period of time and despite her extraordinary fighting spirit, that anyone who met this inspirational force of nature

will recognize, finally succumbed. She was an internationally renowned ceramicist and sculptor who moved her practice from making domestis pottery and garden pots to making large scale sculpture after her MA at the RCA. She became one of the leading clay artists in the world using architectural brick; she was a founder member of WABA (the World Association of Brick Artists) and a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.

She started working in the Ceramics department at Wolverhampton in 1998, joining us from the Ceramics department at Cardiff University. She was a committed teacher and generations of ceramics and glass students have been taught and encouraged by her to develop a love of the subject and to excel as artists and designers in their field. Gwen was renowned for her energy and enthusiasm; most importantly she supported us all to take risks to realise our dreams, that we often did not even know we had.

David Jones.