Claire Harrup teams with ceramicist Lydia Hardwick on a series of special stoneware tiles!

Claire Harrup has teamed up with ceramicist Lydia Hardwick, creating a series of stoneware tiles that brilliantly showcase Claire’s incredible artwork;

“[Lydia and I] met whilst working on an education project for our local arts organisation and were excited to discover we only lived a few roads aways from each other!  Our friendship and shared interests naturally lead to a desire to work collaboratively.”

Starting with a series of quick and simple test tiles, these eventually grew into the collaboration proper, the duo continue to treat each tile in an organic experimental way, responding to each others shapes, colours and marks.

The process starts with Lydia using stained clays to inlay coloured shapes into the stoneware tiles. Once the tiles have been dried and bisque fired they are dropped off at Claire’s doorstep for further decoration! Using underglazes she then brushes, masks out areas and prints onto the tiles. The tiles are then returned to Lydia, glazed and fired in the Kiln for the final time.

The collaboration has been very successful in allowing both artists to continue a visual dialogue despite the restrictions we’ve all faced this year.