Alexander William Dickson (1951-2008) was born in New Zealand where he trained as an architectural draftsman. In 1972, he went on a surfing holiday to Africa, meeting his future wife in Sydney on the way. Returning to Sydney, he married and started a TAFE course in ceramics taught by Richard Brooks. He went on to spend 4 1/2 years with Brooks at Booralie Pottery and Kinka Pottery, and 18 months in Hagi Japan at Tamura Goro's Kiln. In the mid 1980s, he set up his own workshop in Matcham, NSW, moving to Clareville by 1996. He specialised in beautifully-made simple forms fired to stoneware temperatures with traditional glazes, including celadons, temmoku, chuns, woodash and shino, and stylised decoration, sometimes scored or slashed to show the layers of clay. In recent years, he was experimenting with sets and firing in an anagama kiln. He is widely regarded as a ceramic artist, and participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. His mark is an impressed 'X' in a diamond.