Top Drawer this February felt like a really significant show. We’d missed 2021 because it was cancelled (like so much) due to Covid. So there was a lot of new developments to shout about.

In my studio collection, Colour-pop felt like a major shift. I’ve found using unglazed porcelain slips to achieve vibrant colour bands on a single piece, is much more pleasing than my earlier attempts to do the same thing with glaze. There are of course still technical challenges – attaching handles without leaving the slightest trace of wet clay, or indeed, letting a dribble of water run down the slip – these are all accidents that will leave an indelible trace and mar the piece.
To my great pleasure, the collection went really well at the show and I’m still busy making orders for lots of lovely new customers. There will be enormous potential for exploration of new colour combinations with Colour-pop as I’m also combining these vibrant matt slip colours with equally vibrant coordinating glazes. The collection also sits very happily with my existing range of coloured matt glazes.

My Sue Ure Maison label also had a major launch – Ambit, a collection of mugs and beakers in black and white porcelain. I’d really had time (during lockdown) to think very carefully about this design and it became simpler as a result. Porcelain is such a beautiful material in tactile terms and I wanted to use the contrast between the glazed areas of the piece and the unglazed as part of the design. Ambit means borders or boundaries and the contrasting thin slip line at the mid-point marks the border between the glossy glazed area of the pieces and the silky texture of the unglazed lower half of every piece.
It’s been very gratifying to have been given a Highly Commended award by the the Giftware Association’s Gift of the Year Awards. I can’t wait to add new shapes and colours into this collection.