Tydd Pottery | Shape, Form, Line

About

‘Visitors can expect to see large-scaled contemporary ceramics that have been fashioned without the use of wheels, instead using coiling techniques. Many of our visitors will recognise the distinctive blue and white majolica ware that Tydd Pottery has displayed with the gallery for many years,’ says gallery director Sarah Wiseman. ‘However, since January of last year, Ant and Di have been working on something very special indeed, which may surprise some of their collectors.’
In a radical move, Ant and Di have decided to cease production completely on their blue and white functional table wares, instead concentrating on a new, solely decorative collection of works to be treasured and viewed as works of art in their own right. The new collection of large vessels, are recognisably from the Tydd studio, but have taken on a bold, graphic new edge.
Ant says;’ It’s all change here at Tydd Pottery. We have been carrying out a long-held desire to learn to make a type of pottery quite different from the blue and white tin glazed earthenware we have been producing for many years.’
Instead, they have sought inspiration from more traditional techniques some of which are traced back over many centuries. ‘One of our sources of inspiration are the pots produced over many generations by the Ancestral Puebloan people of New Mexico, USA.’  By adopting slower production techniques, Ant and Di have concentrated on form, challenging themselves to produce immaculate shapes, decorated using their distinctive, geometric patterns: vessels are adorned with bold chequered designs, along with zig-zags and overlapping leaves.   
Di says ‘Each vessel takes many hours to complete and each is the result of input by us both—to produce what we hope is an object of striking beauty.’

Gallery director Sarah Wiseman says, ‘we’ve worked with Ant and Di for many years now, since 2007. I’ve always loved their approach – their style of ceramics is very unmistakeable, and people return time and again to add to their collections. Yet we never quite know what to expect with each delivery, because they are always innovating, so this new direction is very exciting indeed.’