The workshop

Clients

Placements &Residences

Restoration

The Workshop
My workshop is in the village of Westgate in Weardale where we relocated in August 2007. I previously worked in Byker, Newcastle upon Tyne, in what was formally the Maling  Ford B Pottery. In its day the Maling Ford B Pottery was the largest pottery in the world. Maling Pottery was established in 1762 in Sunderland.  Ford B Pottery was built in 1878, it closed as a pottery in 1963.  Then 30 years later  “New Castle Delft” opened, bringing ceramics were back on to the site.

I have been making ceramic tiles since 1983. Originally. I worked for a trading division of Newcastle Arts Centre, producing hand made tiles for floors, which were mainly encaustic. In 1991 I opened my pottery “New Castle Delft” at Albion Row. I moved to the Maling Pottery site, (now “Hoult’s Yard”) in 1993. In my new business, I decided upon a change of direction to focus on wall tiles, which would allow me to explore and exploit a broader menu of decorative techniques. Originally I made only delft tiles in polychrome or classic blue and white. My repertoire has expanded to include onglaze painting, tube lining, glaze painting, transfer printing, encaustic, faience and moulded tiles in relief.

Clients
My client base is as varied as the techniques I employ - from butchers shops to universities, from kitchens and bathrooms in Newcastle terraces to the homes of lords and ladies up and down the country - , viscounts, baroness's. . My tiles are to be found across the world in Holland, Germany, Spain, America, Hong Kong, France and in the galley of a privately owned Dow that sails the Indian Ocean. I am often asked how a little business operating from Byker in Newcastle wins such commissions. In 1992, I was fortunate to be featured in an article (“Do it Delft”) in the  magazine ‘The World of Interiors.’ Before I had seen a copy of the issue, an order arrived from Majorca. I still get orders as a result of that article. The most recent was from Rick Stein, the fish cook, in Padstow Cornwall. I produced delft tiles for the ten cooking areas in his new Seafood School, featuring a range of fish and shellfish. Orders also come via kitchen designers who recommend my work to their clients, or from editorials featuring their interiors with my tiles on the walls.
Other examples of commissions have included; encaustic floor tiles for the new visitors centre at Rievaux Abbey, North Yorkshire: encaustic floor tiles for a Church in Workington, (see news page):Delft tiles for Rick Steins Seafood School, in Cornwall. Also the production of salt glazed edging tiles, for a garden restoration project in the Northeast of England, and Sheffield.. For this project, I used stoneware clay quarried and milled in Northumberland .

Placements & Residences
Since graduating with an arts degree in 1982 I have also been involved with community arts projects throughout the region. The majority of these projects have been school based placements and residences where I have worked with students and staff to create site specific artworks. The work has mainly consisted of ceramic murals and panels, but has also included making painted murals, stone carving and plaster works.

Restoration
Restoration is also part of work, during1996-1997; I was working on the restoration of the faience frontage of the Bee Hive Hotel, a listed building, in the Bigg Market area of Newcastle. Also the former Shakespeare Pub in Middlesborough Tee's Side.  In 1998 I restored for the company Robson Ladler, a large panel of Italian tiles depicting Saint Angelo of Jerusalem at the moment of his assassination. I am also known for the restoration of the work of Clarice Cliff’s “jazz age pottery”, which as influenced a range of tiles I have produced in recent years. After Clarice Collection

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CHARLES ALLENAug 2008