Deirdre McLoughlin, now based in Amsterdam, was born in Northern Ireland and studied for a degree in Humanities at Trinity College, Dublin, before discovering clay at the age of 22. She says, “I have called myself variously shapemaker, sculptor, visual artist – and I’ve heard myself say I work with mud. Privately I’ve sometimes thought of myself as an artist undercover." In 2011, one of her works featured on an Irish Post Office 'Year of Craft' postage stamp.