In 1974, Flanagan took lessons from the acclaimed ceramicist Ann Stokes at her Hampstead studio: “Barry wanted to learn about the techniques and experience of the feeling of clay and he made several items using just his hands including some small coiled pots which I then fired.’ He went on to make hundreds of “coil”, “pinch” and “squeeze” pots until just before his death in 2009. They are elemental, derived from countless prehistoric traditions.