The result was a complete disaster, but something clicked within Meeusen. "At that moment, as I desperately tried to prevent the clay from shooting off the potter's wheel, I knew this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life."

It was not just the creativity involved, but the total package. In Carmarthen, the pottery teacher was busy at the wheel while her husband ran a tea shop using cups and plates made in the workshop. Meeusen realised that pottery would also encompass her passion for fine food. She spent the remainder of her time in Wales visiting as many potters in the area as she could.

Meeusen was 22 at the time and had a promising job in public relations. But so great was her desire that she gave up her job to learn the requisite skills. However, she soon realised that no course existed in Flanders that could meet her needs. All the academies were focusing on decorative ceramics; the utilitarian aspect was taboo. So she packed her bags and headed off to a region of Europe where hand-made, functional pottery is most definitely part of the culture: the south of France.

For two years she worked as an apprentice, moving from one atelier de poterie to another. She received board and lodging - and tuition - in return for her work. Tasks included washing the wheel, sweeping the floor, even painting a fence. But in between were wonderful opportunities to watch and learn from outstanding cra␣speople. She mastered the potter's wheel, learned how to operate a kiln and, by the end of her apprenticeship, was turning out her own designs.

Returning to her home town of Westmalle, Meeusen listed her three main objectives: look for a suitable workshop, develop her own style, find some customers. She rented a garage and set up her first wheel and kiln. She decided not to copy the traditional multi-coloured French pottery.

Not keen on eating fine food off brightly coloured plates - and firmly believing that restaurant owners would feel the same - she developed her own style of sober simplicity, with everything in white and off-white.

Meeusen also decided to make two types of products. One was a safe bet: oven-proof stoneware with clay from the Westerwald region of Germany. The other involved greater risk: porcelain pottery with Limoges clay. "It's the finest and smoothest material for pottery that exists," she says, "and produces the most exquisite, translucent results. However, it's a much more challenging and difficult to work with."

Up and running, it was time for the next stage: look for customers. Armed with a cardboard box carefully packed with dishes, she visited interior design shops, restaurants and hotels.

"At first it was extremely slow-going," she admits. "In Flanders there is no culture of hand-made pottery - unlike in England and France - so people were initially reluctant. However, counteracting this is the great Flemish desire to eat well. Chefs began to realise that serving their dishes on unique hand-made porcelain plates provided their restaurants with added value."

As word got around, Meeusen's business began to take off. After seven years in her little garage she was able to move into a workshop. She now has two kilns, custom-made by Vuurvast in Flemish-Brabant.

Her clientele is impressive, including award-winning chef Roger Van Damme of Het Gebaar in Antwerp, the Mnu partnership of top chefs and hotels in Bruges and Antwerp. A recent order for 2,000 identical porcelain water beakers for Belgocatering pushed her well beyond her normal 70-hour work week.

Meeusen is one of a very few full-time hand-made porcelain potters in Flanders. She is aware that it's a dying art and feels that she has a responsibility to pass on her knowledge and skills - especially considering that were it not for the opportunity to "have a go" in a workshop in Carmarthen, her own life might have turned out rather differently.

www.ptzeporselein.be