It takes some time for the eyes to adjust to the work of celebrated South African artist Dillon Marsh and to realise what we are looking at. On first glance, the sculptural forms appear to be a breed of giant hairy beasts which roam over a sun-parched landscape. On closer inspection however, the statuesque forms reveal themselves to be the huge nests of the sociable weaverbird who have made their homes utilising the telegraph poles that run through the southern Kalahari desert.

It seems apt that the birds choose the telegraph pole for their structural core. The 19th century invention, that allowed people over long distances to communicate and keep in touch, offers the weaverbird the perfect structure to build upon, communicate with their fellow birds and create the world’s largest and most populated tree houses. Each nest can weigh in excess of a ton and ranges up to 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall.

Just one of these communal homes, with their waterproofed sloping thatched roofs, can contain a hundred or more nesting chambers. They are refurbished and reused, with residents adding new apartments over successive generations, often for more than a century. Each generation inherits, builds on, and profits from the environment created by its predecessors.

This series of limited edition photographs are seen in relation to each other, much like the nests are a series of cohabitations, the artist sees the photographs as a family, a unit: “I choose objects that can be found in multitude within their environment so that I can depict a family of objects in a series of photographs. By displaying each project as such, I feel I am able to show both the character of the individual members, and the characteristics that make these objects a family.”

Marsh lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, and uses photography to explore the relationship between humans and the world around us.

With solo and group exhibitions from Mexico to Paris, Marsh was one of 16 artists included in the seminal show Pangaea: New Art from Africa and Latin America at The Saatchi Gallery London. The exhibition, featuring South American and African artists, connected the two continents by reminding us of the supercontinent they once comprised over 200 million years ago, before continental drift: Pangaea.

The collection, celebrating 'nature's master architects', are expertly printed at our Fine Art Trade Guild printers in London to museum quality standards, with an edition of just fifty limited edition signed photographic prints made in collaboration with The Shop Floor Project.

As the tide turns along the shores of the River Thames, Fliff Carr slowly crunches along amongst the pebbles and rocks of the banks, unearthing ancient treasures to incorporate into her work.

Small in scale but statuesque in presence, each piece speaks of a forgotten history, dislodged from the muddy banks of the river and re-homed into another type of mud, the fine white earthenware which is a signature of Fliff's work. The combination of the two is both compelling and peaceful.

Fliff Carr is a maker of simple yet beautiful ceramics. Working from her studio in north London for the last 16 years, her finely thrown and hand rolled work is uniquely eclectic. Exploration of scale and pattern characterise Fliff’s sometimes whimsical often surprising pieces. Shell-like white earthenware clay is combined with found objects and touches of gold and platinum lustre to create these magical pieces.

Inspired by her a love of found objects Fliff uses artefacts and fragments of a past narrative as a constant inspiration for her work. She references details from fields as diverse as book illustration, cathedral glass, graffiti, machinery, masonry and lace which inform the texture, shape and imagery present in her collection.

“I am drawn to the idea of collecting and like to design and display things in groups. My use of gold adds to the notion of ‘treasure’, of found objects that are precious.”

In many ways Fliff Carr's works are beautiful pieces of function, a lidded pot for keeping your own treasures, a luxurious butter dish for a special breakfast - a cheese dish even.

However, as you look at the piece closely it begins to reveal its poetic story; the fine, shell-like domes recall the shape of buoys bobbing in the water. The 'mudlark' finds are clustered, clinging like barnacles, or sitting proudly like sentinels on top.

With each changing tide the River Thames reveals a new batch of treasure and Fliff Carr is often there to unearth it.

She favours bits of twisted iron, ancient nails, 17th century pottery, flattened metal chess pieces, fragments of clay pipes and little ceramic figurines. Sometimes these are left in their raw state, other times gold lustre is added in varying degrees, elevating these mud-covered finds into precious objects.

Inspired by her a love of found objects Fliff uses artefacts and fragments of a past narrative as a constant inspiration for her work. Her studio is filled with carefully organised 'finds' just waiting to be incorporated into a fine earthenware object.

Evocative titles such at 'Trade Tag' (above  left) and The King of Tides (above right) offer tantalising clues into the objects history. Some 'treasures' are left in their natural state, often sandblasted by the countless tides, others are covered in a gold or pewter lustre which follows down on to the ceramic itself.

The pots are like tiny museums, displaying an artefact once lost in the thick Thames mud and now proudly sitting on top of a beautifully hand thrown vessel.

In 2022, The Shop Floor Project worked with British artist and ceramicist Christina Serra Delmar, to develop a series of large-scale contemporary Harvest Jugs inspired by historic versions.

These giant globe-shaped pitchers made from slipware, originated in the 18th century in Devon, and were made to hold cider or ale for the centre of farmhouse tables to celebrate the harvest, a wedding or even the launch of a ship. The jugs were highly decorated with simple or stylised motifs and subjects ranged from the natural world, to royal emblems, such as unicorns and flags, and rhyming verses that referred to farming, drinking, the perils of the sea.

Based in her studio in Herefordshire, the patterns, themes and motifs for Christina’s contemporary harvest jugs have been found within her rural day to day life. Beginning life as wonderful lively sketches within the pages of Christina’s many sketchbooks, she shares with us “the birds and trees of my garden, chickens, the folk art and toys and poems and songs of my children, stills from our kitchen table”.

Trained in Fine Art and specialising in figurative sculpture, Christina applies this same sensibility to the bulbous shapes and the “feminine and curvaceous forms of these pieces''.

Completely hand-thrown and decorated by Christina in her studio, a converted garage full to the brim with materials, samples, glaze tests, books.  Each piece is thrown with a terracotta body and dipped entirely into white slip (a liquid clay), this is then skilfully scratched away, in a technique known as sgraffito, to reveal the terracotta body beneath, creating these bold patterns and scenes in the process.

Recurring rhythms and patterns seen throughout the collection are: birds and dots, leaves and berries, dancing people, horses and even a 'Fish Supper' laid out on a plate with a wedge of lemon and cutlery (below). The decorative ‘collars’ on the neck of each piece frame and reference the main scene below. These patterns can be anything from waves, oak leaves, seaweed to an egg motif.

New wonderful pieces followed after the first collection, fresh from the kiln, extra large works inspired by the doves and birds in the artist's garden.

The extra large, giant globe shaped Harvest Jugs are substantial pieces that will be treasured as contemporary heirlooms just as the original 18th century ones are today.  

After a sell out first collection, we commissioned Christina to create a second and third series of her large-scale contemporary Harvest Jugs. The results are these extraordinary pieces.

These beautiful, weighty large-scale pieces of functional and sculptural pottery would be at home at the centre of any table, becoming part of the family.

Let's take a closer look at the patterns Christina Serra Delmar uses in her Harvest Jugs.

The Harvest Jugs, above in Christina's studio. The bisque-fired slipware glaze  is being 'carved' away to create patterns revealing the dark clay beneath. It's a dramatic and ancient technique, used in such an interesting contemporary way by Christina.

For her second collection Christina visited the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, a fascinating place full of ethnographic collections sensitively handled. Primarily a visit to look at the collection of 18th century harvest jugs, Christina also took inspiration from the decoration found on pre-Columbian pots in the collection at the Museum.

This stunning Spots & Stripes Harvest Jug (above) and the Abacus Harvest Jug (below) sees Christina playing with patterns and simple repeat forms: 'I was thinking of the patterns of Peggy Angus, threads and fabrics"

Pattern can be found on all of Christina's Harvest Jugs. In the Doves on the Shore (above and below) Christina places doves, 'round and earthy like pre-hispanic clay whistles' amongst a bold graphic pattern of seaweed and dots.

And on Swallows at Dusk (below), as the birds chase insects on the wind, more wonderful patterns of scallops, triangles and leaves adorn the top collar.

The joyful Oak Before Ash Harvest Jug, below.

We couldn't finish without looking at the incredible patterns on the extraordinary Midsummer Harvest Jug.

“My Midsummer jug plays homage to the beautiful North Devon Harvest jugs of the 1800's, in particular ones in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The Bideford jugs in the collection move me greatly. The form and the decoration of the jugs hold so much life in them, the life of the men who made them, the marks from their hands, their thumbs and fingertips, their thoughts and hearts.”

If your favourite Harvest Jug has already gone, we can commission it again for you! Just let us know which piece you are interested in.

Mediaeval scrolls, tapestries, frescoes, quilts, folk-lore and dreams are all cited as inspiration for the artist Kosuke Ajiro. To look into one of Ajiro-san’s paintings is to get lost within another world, one full of mandrakes, winged-cardinals, puppets, flowers, mysterious writings, kings, queens and knights, forest creatures and tree roots.

Based in Tokyo, Kosuke Aijro is celebrated in Japan for his fascinating work, with several important solo exhibitions and publications in Japanese, we are delighted to make his work available to a wider audience, for the first time in the UK.

Printed at our Fine Art Trade Guild printers in London to museum quality standards, Kosuke Ajiro has given permission for an edition of just fifty (very) limited edition signed prints to be made in collaboration with The Shop Floor Project.

The scale of these works have a feeling of a framed piece of fresco or ancient tapestry and are taken from original paintings which the artist made exclusively for The Shop Floor Project in 2020.  

Each painting has been skilfully reproduced on beautiful Aquarelle Rag paper using accurate and rich archival inks in a careful process that respects the original painting. Every print has an authentication label on the reverse (shown above) which is signed by the artist.

Our immediate response to seeing Ajiro’s work for the first time was one of complete fascination. At once they recalled characters from an Angela Carter novel, ancient Herbals and alchemists’ books and illuminated mediaeval manuscripts such as this example from 1500 below.

In the original painting Prank (below) a swagged stage curtain unfolds to reveal a scene reminiscent of a Shakespearean farce. A wedding between a queen and a figure in a cloak disguised as a donkey-like creature is playing out as the trees with eyes bear witness to the happenings.

A similar scene in the original work Sleepy (below) where a moth-like creature with a crown made from a seedpod looks to be marrying a regal looking horned animal in gold cape, whilst a sleepy figure reclines in the clouds above.

Kosuke Ajiro’s work is full of mystery. There is a powdery quality to the work, dusty almost - as if from the pages of an ancient text and the figures and creatures have walked out from illuminated margins. The artist’s use of paper with age and texture adds to this atmosphere.

In West Queen (above) a figure in a lace ruff and tiara is disguised and hidden under a hat made from a creature. A cape of protection as she ventures out perhaps, fragments of ancient text collaged onto the painting reveal something we don't quite understand, yet the expression is of someone who knows their fate and is about to venture through the forest. Are the the figures along the bottom, painted like cave markings, a memory or dream of a feast, somewhere she longs to be or is going?

The large painting Mythology is almost one metre in length and feels scroll-like. It contains a fascinating scene that appears to be held at a royal court where gifts and wreaths are being brought to the queen, onlookers and guests surround the sides of the painting. Creatures with forked tongues and ears wear gowns covered in fleur de lys.

Ellen Hayward is a ceramicist based in Whistable on the East Kent coast. She studied textile design at Bath School of Art, specialising in weaving, and continues to work as a textile designer alongside her own ceramics practice, enjoying the contrasts and many cross overs between the two disciplines.

Using a mixture of sophisticated techniques including slip casting, hand modelling, sgraffito drawing and slipware glazes, Ellen creates folk-art inspired designs that will bring a smile each time the candles are lit.

Designs include The Blue Poodle, The Blue Cat, The Blue Hare, The King & Queen and The Swirling Skirt Lady. They are all individual so can be mixed or matched to create your very own cast of characters.

The collection first consisted of smudgy blues and soft white glazes, referencing ‘blue and white’ china, from 17th century Delft blue to the deep indigo seen on English Transfer-ware from the 18th century.

Stripes, swirls, dots, dashes and oak leaves can all be seen decorating the surfaces, painted and carved into the wet ‘slip’ revealing the white glaze beneath.

Monochrome versions of her popular blue and white designs were subsequently introduced, introducing us to some new characters, including the Bear and the Fox.

The Bear quickly became a new favourite here at The Shop Floor Project, with his furry-white belly, stripy top hat and sleepy expression.

Look closely at The King and the influence of Ellen’s profession as a textile designer can clearly be seen in his patterned jumper.

Ellen has always maintained a love of illustration and likes to think of her work as three-dimensional prints, using brush work and sgraffito techniques to achieve a bold, graphic quality to her pieces.

Her work explores a fondness for character and includes influences from lino cuts, English slipware pottery, and children’s book illustration.

Each candlestick holder created exclusively for The Shop Floor project is made in Ellen’s small garden studio. The main body for each design is slip cast in white earthenware using handmade plaster moulds created from original models.

Smaller details such as ears, arms and crowns are then modelled onto these forms by hand. Each piece is hand painted, applying several layers of coloured slip and underglaze to build a clear design on the surface of the clay.

Finally, using a pointed tool details are drawn into the coloured slip revealing the contrasting white clay beneath.

“This process is enjoyably methodical but also intuitive in how it explores the transfer of two-dimensional patterns onto a three-dimensional surface, and by  combining slip cast forms with hand modelling and decorating techniques each piece is given its own character.”

Developing the collection further together, latest additions include The Juggler Candelabras - joyful, larger candleholders, with two arms and decorated in bold green or pink colourways.

A hybrid of the alpine primula, with hundreds of cultivars, the auricula has several historical societies and countless admirers devoted to these dramatic little flowers. Denise Allan is the latest to sign up to the appreciation club. Working from her roof-top studio on the fifth floor of the old Warehouse where The Shop Floor Project was based at the time, the artist describes her interest in these flowers.

“I am not usually drawn to overly hybridised flowers, but it’s the very artificiality of these plants that attracts me. The development of the way the plants have been displayed throughout history seems to have removed them further and further away from nature, treating them as specimens and curiosities."

"One of the first documented ways to display them was to line up potted auricula along the centre of a table at a 17th century ‘shilling ordinary’ where diners could admire them as they ate. I’ve been inspired by perhaps the most well-known display, the ‘auricula theatre’; a shelved stage, painted with a dark backdrop (below left) .”

Auricula were mentioned by the 18th century Huguenot silk weaver’s of Spitalfields who incorporated them into designs for fabric (as shown above right).

“I remember the time myself when a man who was a tolerable workman in the fields had generally beside the apartment in which he carried on his vocation, a small summer house and a narrow slip of a garden at the outskirts of the town where he spent his Monday either in flying his pigeons or raising his tulips and Auricula.” John Thelwall 1795, Spitalfields silk mercer.

Auricula were renowned for their status and were grown for competition by flower fanciers at ‘Florists’ Feasts’, the precursors of the modern flower show. These events were recorded as taking place in Spitalfields and across the country in local halls and public houses with prizes such as a copper kettle or a ladle. After the day’s judging, the plants were all placed upon a long table where the participants sat to enjoy a meal together known as “a shilling ordinary” and to admire their exhibits.

Across Europe they were so popular that many large estates set up an auricula theatre with a stage, a curtain and seating. A flowering plant was brought from behind the curtain and placed on a structure for the audience to admire and applaud. The specimen was then taken away and a new one placed in front of the audience to great applause. At the end of the show the audience was invited to the wall to view the plants at close range.

Denise Allan invites the same inspection of these new printed specimens, taken from the original paintings on board and beautifully printed at our Fine Art Trade Guild printers in East London to museum quality specifications, on the finest quality archival, acid-free paper. Aquarelle Rag is a beautifully textured paper, similar to that of traditional watercolour. It's natural white tone highlights the colour intensity of different pigments, including blacks.

Each print is limited to an edition of 100 and signed and authenticated on the reverse. Display individually or create an Auricula Theatre with a whole wall of specimens.

Can you hear it? The rhythmic snip, snip, snip coming from the studio of Sarah Battle, nestled high up in the attic of an 18th century weaver’s cottage in the West Yorkshire hills. It’s a song that has been singing for many years.