27th August 2018

You dig?

The fact that Dartmoor-based husband-and-wife duo Jeremy and Cath Brown, aka Feldspar, even started a brand in the first place is down to their resourcefulness. Having made the move to Devon and starting to kit out their house, they couldn’t find interior products that really grabbed them, so they started making their own. But for London Design Fair, the pair’s can-do attitude is taken up a notch with the launch of a limited-edition range of mugs made from clay dug from their own garden.

At London Design Fair, which runs from 20 to 23 September, Feldspar will launch a hugely expanded range of 15 new pieces in fine bone china tableware. From cereal bowls and cake stands to egg cups and candlesticks, the delicate pieces are all designed and handmade in Feldspar’s Devon studio. But some of the new pieces have quite a different aesthetic to the dainty, translucent bone china. Its limited-edition mugs, which have an earthy more robust feel, have been created from clay found within a 10-metre radius of their home, which the duo dug, cleaned and prepared by hand themselves.

Given most potters stick with the shop-bought stuff, we were keen to find out how and why Feldspar have made mugs from what they could find very literally under their feet. So we called up Jeremy to chat about the process and how it fits in with Feldspar’s overall ethos…

Jeremy and Cath Brown (Feldspar) in their rural Devon studio.

Tell us a little bit about the experience of realising that there were seams of clay running through the land behind your house…

It all came from pottering around in the garden, and having to dig through lumps of clay to try to plant things, lavender, in particular. The plants didn’t survive – turns out my visions of lavender hedges are more suited to the well-drained deposits of Provence. But we thought we’d dig up the clay in this one patch to just see if we could make anything with it, so we refined a small batch and made a few pots from it, both pinch pots and on the wheel. And it was much nicer to work with than the store-bought clays we’d been experimenting with. So, we went for it and just kept digging…

What are the characteristics of the clay in Devon and how does it different to the body you use for the rest of your collection? 

The clay around our house is an earthenware with flecks of china clay in it and is a deep orange colour when fired, while our other collection is made from fine bone china, which was invented in Stoke on Trent by Josiah Spode in the late 18th century. It has only three ingredients: Cornish stone, bone ash and china clay, which combine to create the highly prized, bright white ceramic we use for our main collections. It is very hard to work with and very unforgiving, while our earthenware is much more malleable and much more forgiving. It’s also an unknown quantity though: we process it in small batches and no two batches will ever be exactly the same. It’s got a deep russet colour, it starts off as an ochre and gets deeper and deeper orange as it goes through the making process, bisque firing, and glazing.

From raw material to finished product: Feldspar's hand-dug Devon clay transformed into a handcrafted mug.

Walk us through the process of getting the clay out ready to use… are there lots of different processes? Could anyone make pots from their garden? 

First find it, either by having a dig or looking at some geological maps. Riverbanks are usually a sure bet. Dig a little to test that it’s good enough by rolling it into a worm and rolling it around your finger. if it doesn’t crack it’s got enough plasticity to use. Dig it up (a pickaxe works best) get any big stones out and soak it for a day or so. Do what’s called blunging (mixing it up), leave it to settle for another day or two. The aim is to get a nice slurry going. Then filter it with a large sieve, then gradually through smaller and smaller sieves. The clay will be full of organic matter (sand and so on) but the clay itself is soluble so will go through the sieves. You don’t want to filter out all the bits though, a little sand left is useful (silica, works as a grog). Eventually, when you’re happy with the consistency of the slip (liquid clay) pour it into a cotton sheet, tie it up and hang to dry (much like making ricotta).

When it’s dry we then get it wet again – in controlled conditions. Break it into dust and add small amounts of water, and add what’s called a deflocculant so that it’s easier to mix. So it’s liquid enough to be able to take the specific gravity, we’re aiming for a reading of 1.75. Normally then we’ll have to gradually add more clay to get the viscosity right, either judging by eye or with a viscometer. And when you have the desired viscosity, you can use it just like any other slip. Easy!

How is the aesthetic of this limited edition mug different to the other pieces?

 We wanted it to be much rawer somehow – to have more of a connection with the earth, to be aware when you’re holding it that it’s a rudimentary and hand-crafted object but one that still has the delicacy and elegance of our fine bone china range. We want to try to elevate this natural material, it’s so ubiquitous and yet so much work goes into making it into something useable. It’s a process that’s as old as time but one that nowadays we take for granted somewhat. We wanted to reconnect the user of the cup with the raw material. It’s made – literally – from the mud under our feet, so we’ve left the base unglazed to highlight the beautiful colour of the clay, and have glazed the rest in a simple white to provide a contrast and to make it useable.

Feldspar's Devon clay espresso mug

How does producing pieces so locally feed into the Feldspar ethos?

We always wanted to create objects that last from the finest materials we could find locally. Our company is sustainable by default – we couldn’t run a business any other way – but here instead of using fine bone china which is a luxury material (still sourced from the UK) our own clay collection provides us with a connection to Devon, our home and the source of all our inspiration for our collections.

What does your garden look like now you’ve dug half of it up?!  

We’ve only been digging holes where there were (very weedy) beds, so soon we’re going to fill them in and plant them up! Until then, we’ve just got to watch our step…

Want to know more about Feldspar went from making things for their own home to becoming an international brand? Read our interview with Cath Brown here.

Feldspar's range of mugs handcrafted from Devon clay.

Feldspar's clay drying at their home in Devon.

Feldspar's limited edition espresso mug pre-glaze

Discover the process behind Feldspar’s exquisite teapot in this behind-the-scenes feature.