Ideas for Annie's work are drawn from the River Deben, a tidal River in Suffolk, where for many generations her family has lived and worked. Fossils collected since childhood form the quality and colour palette found in her work, each colour linking back to the muddy foreshore on which it was conceived. The landscape is constantly changing; what is concealed by the flow of water and shifting mud and structures used to mark and marshal the flow, are revealed. The making process is evolutionary; whilst working on one piece, ideas develop for the following work. Annie is always learning and testing the clay. Pieces sometimes take one river element as inspiration, others merge two or more to create composite descriptions of the river's architecture and man's intervention; the harvesting of shellfish and, in particular, herrings using drift nets, evoking memories of times when fishing with her late father.


These ladder-like forms suggest the archaeological objects emerging from the mud. These structures refer to the many ladders that are found on or in the river. Viewed from the side they are suggestive of the jetties that straddle the foreshore. Their elliptical shape is boat-like, referencing the Sutton Hoo site upstream. Annie uses an iron-rich, red, stoneware clay to make her work, and lithium glazes. She adds a variety of oxides to the glaze: yellow iron, nickel, and zirconium.


There are three bodies of work in the Ladders series. The ladders forming the Tideline series make direct reference to the ebb and flow of the water and the marks left by the receding tides. Ladders glazed white suggest a frozen landscape, marked out in a frozen tideline echoing the continued passing of time and tide.


All works are hand built, glazed using lithium and a variety of oxides and fired to 1220oc – 1230oc.