New Robbie Williams Display Promotes Endangered Stoke Pottery Industry

As modern manufacturing heralds the death of craftmanship, this new exhibit featuring designs by Robbie Williams hopes to protect these endangered skills for the future.

Robbie Williams’ Designs Seek To Keep Stoke’s Pottery Industry Alive

Global pop sensation, former Take That star and Stoke-on-Trent native Robbie Williams has designed four new ceramic artworks as part of a campaign to raise awareness for Stoke’s dying artisanal skills. His designs are currently on exhibit as part of the ‘100 Years, 60 Designers, 1 Future’ exhibition at Stoke’s Potteries Museum & Gallery (PMAG), alongside those of 60 other creatives.

In early August, a set of ceramics will go on display at Fortnum & Mason in London, while a collection of signed plates will be auctioned off in September to raise money for the future protection of these endangered crafts. 

Featured in the Fine Art section of PMAG, the exhibit opened on 12 June to mark 100 years since King George V granted Stoke-on-Trent city status in 1925. Curated in collaboration with Emily Johnson (co-founder and creative director of ceramic design brand 1882. Ltd) and her team, this exhibition showcases the work of the potters whose talent, experience and skills continue to keep Stoke’s pottery industry alive today.

Johnson is the fifth generation of Stoke’s famous Johnson Brothers pottery family. The city is renowned for its rich pottery history but – as with many artisanal skills – crafters from the area fear it may be dying out, with many skills recently classified as endangered by the Heritage Crafts Council. Creating this exhibition as a call to action, Johnson hopes it will highlight the role design can play in bringing ceramic techniques into the future.

Each creative contributor submitted illustrations (including drawings, creative graphics, paintings and even a handwritten script), which were then translated into ceramics by 1882 Ltd.’s team of artisans. Through careful hand painting, decal application and hand finishing, the designs were then transferred onto classic bone china plates. 

It process took three months, and the whole of the factory floor – from potters and modelers to casters and painters – to bring Robbie Williams’ 2D ink drawings of Jesus and The Pope into three-dimensional life. Built using hand clay coiling techniques, these pieces, some standing 80cm tall, were then put through weeks of drying, a series of multiple firings and endless experimentations with pigment-intensive painting.

Other creators include British fashion designers Dame Zandra Rhodes (soon to speak at the inaugural Chelsea Arts Festival) and Giles Deacon, Oscar-winning set designer Shona Heath, costume designer Sandy Powell, interior designers Sophie Ashby and Natalia Miyar, and artists Bruce McLean, Hayden Kays and Barnaby Barford. Maxim is included as a fellow musician, and architects John Pawson and Amanda Levete are also featured. Works by revolutionary designers such as Neville Brodie, Barber & Osgerby, Max Lamb, Bethan Laura Wood, Tom Dixon, Faye Toogood and Yinka Ilori are on display as well.

A signed collection of plates will be auctioned off in September to raise money for the development of an 1882 Ltd. apprenticeship scheme, ensuring the invaluable skills of Stoke’s artisans not only survive but thrive. A limited-edition run of unsigned plates will also be available to purchase, with proceeds going to the scheme. Fifteen percent of funds will also go to The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust (QEST) to fund opportunities for Stoke-on-Trent schoolchildren to experience working and playing with clay.

‘I’m from Stoke and the potteries are ingrained in me – we are of clay,’ says Robbie Williams. ‘Transforming my art into works of clay with 1882 Ltd. has been amazing. The pottery industry has given me and my people a sense of identity, a sense of pride. Clay built our city so there couldn’t be anywhere better than having it on display in the Fine Art Gallery at the Potteries Museum during the Centenary celebrations of our unique city.’

‘100 Years, 61 Designers & 1 Future’ is currently on show in the Fine Art Gallery at The Potteries Museum & Gallery (stokemuseums.org.uk). 

The deadline for the silent auction is 21 September, and designs remain anonymous until purchase; make your bid at uk.givergy.com