Just home from Clerkenwell Design Week. I have a stack of business cards and brochures in front of me, but I’m going to reduce my report down to one name to watch: Ceramic and glass designer Owen Wall. He’s showing just four different plates at Craft Central‘s Design to Serve (until 25 May), which to my overworked eyeballs made a deliciously simple sight. See two of them on our instagram page, here (I forgot to use my proper camera – top work).

Owen’s website doesn’t do enough justice to his creations, but the piece below, with its lovely speckled glaze, is akin to what he’s currently showing.

Obviously this plate should be paired with farmer’s market-bought food served from a hewn-wood chopping block and wiped from your mouth with a natural linen napkin. Obviously.

Owen mainly works to commission for swish restaurants, including The Clove Club in Shoreditch Town Hall, and smaller runs of his pieces are individually made from his studio in Haggerston. I can’t get the green ones out of my head.

Broken Smeg & shop news

Where to start in this two-pronged story… Have you seen this lovely online shop A Rum Fellow? It’s run by Dylan O’Shea and his partner Caroline Lindsell who have (respective) backgrounds in charity and fashion. This is their first shop venture, which they started at the end of last year. It’s full of colourful and […]

Friends in The Forest

A quick alert to all south east Londoners – this Saturday sees a ‘makers market’ in Forest Hill, with artisan food stalls, craft and art for sale. It’s part of the excellent SEE3 scheme which is bringing pop-up shops to empty spaces in Forest Hill and Sydenham. There’ll be much more to tell you about […]

Amateur upcycling

I’m having a cabinet curtain quandary…try saying that when you’re drunk. As mentioned a while back I’m mid-way through making these shelves more likeable to my eye. That’s them, already painted in Fired Earth’s Carbon Blue and on their way to becoming a linen cabinet. Now I want to add a curtain on the front, […]

Crockery Counselling: Favourite cup

I definitely did not empathise enough when Ros broke her tureen, Tom broke his cup and Madeleine broke her plate. I know that now, because today I broke my favourite, favourite cup and I’m in a right mardy about it. It – I like to think she – was a gift all the way from […]