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About Us

 

Helen White

My interest in the countryside and its geography has inspired me to find a way to share my love of the natural environment through my art.  
The images for the mugs are created by lino cuts taken from my sketches of prominent features and familiar landscapes. I look at the geological elements to find dramatic and interesting landscapes and then read up on its historical and cultural significance and sketch ideas.  
My focus is on the landscape and I am inspired by the vast variety of geological character of our country. Craggy limestone escarpments, granite tors, millstone grit outcrops and glacial cut valleys are just a few examples of the dramatic features that shape our countryside.


 

 

I then transfer my mug sketches to a piece of lino which I cut into a relief print surface using a scalpel. Taking the first print is always an exciting moment. The sharp scalpel cuts add a clarity to the lines of the image – simplifying and decluttering it. Lines, texture and patterns emerge. Colour is added by screen printing as a ceramic transfer which creates mood and shape. The results create a rather retro feel to the images reflecting a genre of past ceramic design. 

Our mugs are made in Stoke, where my artwork is placed in the hands of talented ceramic printers who screen print the images as ceramic transfers. We then fix and fire the ceramic transfers as glazes to the mug and tankard surfaces. This includes a layer of hardiness to the finish so that a mug will continue to provide memories through many years to come.
 
To find out more about my artwork and travels around the UK please visit my blog at hkwhiteblog.com.

 

 

Art for everyday

I think of the clean ivory surface of the fine bone china mugs and tankards as a blank canvas for my artwork. I love the thought that I am creating something that is to be used; something very tangible, to be held and enjoyed. I can make individual, thoughtful artwork available to more people through a medium that is very much central to the ‘everyday”. Picking up a mug for a daily tea or coffee break, with an image from a past holiday, adventure or challenge seems a very successful way to achieve this.