Ray Taylor left a TAFE teaching position in 1982 to complete a graduate diploma in Ceramic Design at Chisholm Institute. After a successful solo exhibition, be began to work as a full-time potter in 1983 from a studio in Hawthorn, Melbourne. Specialising in raku, he combined handbuilding, throwing and moulding techniques to make basic forms with contrasting features - necks, lugs, flanges, surface reliefs, etc. - and patterned and textured glazes. He also made a body of work comprising stylised male and female forms sanded and polished to retain the quality of the fired clay. His work is signed with a painted 'R Taylor' or 'RT'.