Illustrations
Helen grew up in an art-loving family and was a keen painter from an early age. It remains a passion, sketchbooks are filled on holidays, at weekends and whenever there’s a free moment.
Helen sketches in ink and paints in watercolour. Her expressive style tells a playful story of contemporary life.
Bespoke
Helen creates her bespoke designs in her London studio. The bespoke porcelain pots are individually thrown on a potter’s wheel then hand painted.
This painting process for bespoke pieces is notably difficult. To create the freehand outlines, Helen has developed a unique relief-print method using paper impregnated with black ceramic stains. Colour is then added as washes which are mixed using a palette of underglaze stains. It’s a real labour of love as the larger pieces can take days or even weeks to get right, but this technique allows her to create her beautiful hand painted porcelain.
The aim is to create works of art for galleries, museums, private clients and luxury retailers. Notable clients have included the National Gallery, Jo Malone London and Fortnum and Mason.
Many bespoke pieces are created as commissions, for example to commemorate special events and occasions. If you are interested in commissioning a bespoke piece, please contact Helen.
Dailyware
Over time the question grew - could you make ceramic pieces as special which could be handled and enjoyed everyday - a 'Dailyware' range? And could you keep them handmade and exclusively designed and made in England? The answer was yes ... eventually! The production skills involved in a more commercial range proved quite different to those Helen had developed over the years with the Bespoke range. It was a steep learning curve, but Helen was fortunate to be able to work with some of the true experts in the field in Stoke-on-Trent, the traditional home of the UK ceramic industries.
The Dailyware pots are slip-cast from moulds of Helen’s wheel thrown forms. They are then bisque-fired, glazed and glaze-fired before being decorated with special lithographically printed ceramic decals of Helen’s hand-painted illustrations. A third and final firing melts the artwork into the glaze, so that it is tough enough for dishwashers, microwaves and everyday use.
The first Dailyware range, in Staffordshire porcelain, launched at 'Maison et Objet' in Paris in 2016. It proved popular, almost too popular in fact as we found we couldn’t make enough pieces to keep up with demand from around the world. So back to the drawing board and back to Stoke-on-Trent to develop the designs.
The result was the second Dailyware range in English bone china, which launched at a week-long pop-up in Marylebone in 2019. This new range is visually similar to the first range, but with a whiter clay which really helps the illustrations ‘zing’.
The Dailyware range is designed and manufactured exclusively in England. Each piece is carefully handmade which means that there are very slight variations in appearance, but our quality control is very strict so each piece will be perfect in its own way.
The aim was to create something to make the everyday special. Pieces to treasure and and relish, pieces we'd want to own ourselves. We love the results, we hope you do too.