Sue Pryke: Celebrating pottery & ceramics

Ceramics are currently one of the hottest categories in interiors with increased popularity thanks to a heightened interest in handmade items and the craft process. Brands and designers are celebrating the hand of the maker, embracing imperfections and artisanal approaches, as consumers are adopting stress comfort philosophies to help with a more balanced life, sustainability and buying local.

Sue Pryke celebrates the joy of pottery and ceramics, with tactility and function. She is inspired by the everyday and the ordinary; material qualities, textures and the interaction we have with objects.  ‘Small details and preferences which reflect the intuitive decision making we all make on a daily basis when choosing what cup to take from the cupboard for a cup of tea’

Each piece is bespoke, creating her own collection of objects that sit comfortably in the home, that aren’t awkward, audacious or tricky to use or care for, but are familiar, have fluency and sit effortlessly.

‘It’s a material we use every day, it’s familiar to all and mainly unconsidered, interesting as we all use it mainly without thinking.’

Sue adopted pottery as a pathway from an early age, learning the basic skills of clay production to throwing at Lincolnshire Wolds. Which led to her working at Wedgwood as a shape designer, giving her experience of both a small-scale craft workshop and the volume production required in mass manufacturing. Sue still hops between working for volume producers Ikea and high street retailers such as M&S, with small scale factories as well as producing a craft range in her own studio too.

 

Although clay is an organic material, ceramics isn’t generally an eco-friendly pursuit. Sue is still very conscious of sustainability by reducing waste, reclaiming excess glaze from the dipping process and recycling any unfired scrapes, as well as using clay from the UK to reduce the carbon footprint.

Sue also works collaboratively with her husbands’ company Wild + Wood, who work with oak and concrete, producing homeware collections. The concrete is formed in a similar way in moulds using granite aggregates from a local quarry in Leicestershire.

‘The line between the materials becomes blurred as they both have similar qualities, the matt surfaces of both the materials sit coherently together and I purposely develop the colour palette so that it complements the industrial nature of the concrete, adding a soft plaster pink and off white gives a softness and contemporary edge for the home’

For more, visit Sue’s website here.

Liked this? Read WGSN Lifestyle & Interiors’ Textured Ceramics report here. 

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