| The collection of eight remarkable clocks has finally been delivered after a wait of some five months due to the demand for Mark's work both in the UK and America. Karen Tait of the bohemia gallery said, "We have been waiting for these clocks for what seemed an eternity, but the wait was worth every second, the originality of design, the finish and just the overall quality of the work is outstanding and is exactly the type of work that inspired us to set up bohemia."
 | | 'King of Hearts' by Mark Dally |
Mark said "I take my inspiration from mass-produced, recognizable everyday forms; my contemporary ceramic clocks are a reinterpretation of popular culture. "At the same time, perhaps conversely, I strive for quality workmanship in my pieces with strong attention to detail. "In my work I try to transform the everyday into the surprising and witty - yet still faintly familiar. "Starting with shapes taken from plastic children's toys or household gadgets, and by adapting some industrial ceramic techniques to my studio ceramic approach, I rearrange and re-assemble elements from mass production to make my handmade clockwork characters.
"These design ideas have developed from my childhood fascination with 1950s and '60s Sci-Fi, like Robbie the Robot's fake functionalism, or the quaint aerodynamics of Dan Dare's 'streamlined' space rockets. "Other influences include playful cartoon animation, as in Fantasia and Max Fleischer's Hoppity Goes to Town. "More recently, John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland seen afresh have inspired me with their odd yet familiar composite characters.  | | 'Giant Queen' by Mark Dally |
"My interest in pre-Hispanic South American and Australian Aboriginal art has influenced my decorative style, along with modish textiles and surface patterns of the '50s, like Ridgway's Homemaker pattern.
"To make my work I start with hand-modelled or lathe-turned shapes, along with found objects. From these I make plaster moulds which I use to translate the shapes into clay components. "From my extensive library of moulds, I slip cast components in white earthenware which, later, I join when leather-hard. "Once composition of the piece is complete I decorate the green ware with slip trailed and brushed slips. "After the initial firing I glaze with a combination of under glazes and brightly coloured earthenware glazes. "Finally, in a third lustre firing I apply metallic lustre's and touches of liquid bright gold and platinum". | 
