HOW IT'S MADE - Sri Lanka
Hannah’s ceramic designs are handmade in a small pottery workshop in Sri Lanka, where since 2011 she has been visiting every year to work on new designs and look over how everything is going there.
Hannah chose the company in Sri Lanka for her designs because it's a small, family-run business which places a high value on it’s workers and their environment. They allowed her to order in small, manageable quantities which helped to grow a large range of designs for customers to choose from, and build the business over time.
HAND FINISHED AND DECORATED
The highly-skilled workers are responsible for hand-finishing each of the designs. This involves cleaning up the raw clay as it comes out of the mould, hand-painting or sponging the under-glaze colours, carefully transporting and loading into tightly-packed kilns, and then hand-decorating with screen printed decals that add that final bit of character to each design.
Hannah’s initial models are taken through the design studio and prepared for having a mould made from them. This is her favourite place to work as it's light and airy, and some great creations have started there!
It’s fascinating to see all the processes involved in production, from raw clay to packed goods ready to send on their way, either to the UK, USA, Japan or other countries that now sell Hannah’s work.
SERIOUS ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY
The business is reacting and auditing all aspects of how the designs are made and packaged to keep the carbon footprint down and reduce our impact. All of our packaging is recycled, and we use paper packing tape too so there are no plastics involved at any stage.
Hannah keeps her trips to Sri Lanka to a minimum, and is in the process of organising tree planting to offset the carbon emissions from flying, as well as checking all areas in the supply chain and researching other sustainable products to add to the range on offer. This is critical to the direction the business will go in the next few years, as we care deeply about our planet.
We hope you appreciate that everything we produce is intended to be a collectable and cherished purchase, and we are not buying into throw-away consumerism, but trying to create designs of quality on a small scale. The attention to detail that goes into every aspect of what we create is part of why we are not the cheapest on the market - we don’t want to be cheap bulk buys, just offer great British design created to last and pass on through the generations.
HOW IT'S MADE - UK
TEXTILES
All of our kitchen textiles are printed in the UK on organic, unbleached cotton. We are serious about sustainability and so this was the best option for us - cotton production causes a lot of environmental issues if not done in the right way. The UK company we work with also allows us to order in smaller print runs, so we can try out more beautiful designs!
GICLÉE PRINTS
Our growing range of giclée prints are printed for us in Bristol on Fine Art paper, with non-toxic inks, on a beautiful archival substrate paper that has a watercolour feel. Each print is supplied in a biodegradable, compostable, vegetable starch print sleeve with card to support it - so well protected and yet plastic free. We are determined to keep plastic out of our business! All prints are signed by Hannah on the front of the print.
