Product Details

Unique one-off hand made vase by Peggy Poppleton

Materials: Slip decorated earthenware.

Size: 21.5 x 12.5 x 12.5cm (8.5 x 4.9 x 4.9 inches)

Using water in the vases: As with all earthenware vessels, if vases are filled with water, it is recommended that they are stood on a flat dish, tile or coaster, in order that they do not leave a ring on a wooden or similar surface.

THE STORY

A wise old owl sat on an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird? 

Nesting birds and their fledglings are commanding much of the garden at the moment. A family of blackbirds are busy rearing their plump chicks which hop around, hiding in foliage, finding their wings, playing in the rain water - it’s a joy to watch each day. 

May is the perfect time to launch this new collection by Peggy Poppleton, who has captured the same sense of playful energy and joy in her slipware Owl Vases.

Each hand-made, slipcast vase is shaped to express the form of the owl. 

The patterns are layered like a collage, with ‘resists’ which mask out shapes, and ‘slip’ (a wet coloured clay) for those painterly energetic lines. As these marks build up, they create feathers, feet and those striking eyes, so familiar to us on a primeval level. 

(Playing with ideas for patterns in Peggy’s paper cut owl ‘tests’)

There is a great sense of fun in having a series of vases set around the home, ready for a new display, bringing the outside in. It means that you can play with arrangements and compositions throughout the seasons. The shape of the vases are perfect for this; long and generous for water with a nice narrow ‘neck’ to keep the foliage upright. The Large Owls are perfect for long stems, branches of scented shrubs and bowers of crab apples. The Owl Chick vase is just the right size for bunches of sweet peas, herbs or even trimmed-down dahlia pom-poms.

Inspiration for the Owl Vases initially arose from seeing ancient artefacts in visits to museums. Depictions of the ancient Greek goddess Athena as an owl began the interest, as did a tiny terracotta owl made by the Zuni, now in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford (image below). The Zuni people live in New Mexico, where, in Zuni culture, the Owl was known as "The Night Grandfather", as he is able to see what others cannot.

“All my work starts as drawings made in sketchbooks whilst visiting museums all around the world. I like drawing and working directly from the artefacts, it makes me focus harder and see all the details.”

The use of slipware also nods to that very English 16th and 17th century pottery, often made in Staffordshire, like Ozzy the Owl - who was famously showcased on the Antiques Roadshow to the nation’s delight, the highest valued ceramic in the show’s history at the time. There is just something so joyful about the owl in ceramic form.

Peggy Poppleton is a fine art trained ceramicist whose inspiration comes from an extensive knowledge of art history, built up over many years of teaching art and visiting museums. She works from her beautiful studio in Brighton, which was once a Victorian laundry.