Summerill & Bishop x Emily Mitchell

We're delighted  to share with you, our exclusive new ceramics collection, designed and handmade by the wonderful Emily Mitchell. Each piece is artfully hand-built, thrown and painted in Emily's Norfolk studio and features a delicate botanical design, generous curves and the occasional slick of gold lustre. The collection is inspired by early English Delftware and will be a beautiful talking point for your table or dining room. 

Green Laurel Simple Candle Holder
Green Laurel Gold Ornaments Tulipere Vase with Twisted Handles
Green Laurel Stripe Handles Candle Holder

Summerill & Bishop x Emily Mitchell Ceramics 

I've grown up around ceramics as both my parents made ceramic work. I've always loved making things and nearly did ceramics as a degree - I rediscovered my love of working with clay a few years ago and have since been hooked! 

Summerill & Bishop x Emily Mitchell Ceramics 

Where does your passion for making and creating come from? 

I grew up with two avid collectors, my granny and my mother, so was surrounded with unusual objects in everyday life at home. My granny was an antique dealer, who specialised in early English oak, and I always wanted to play dolls with the oak cribs and she always let me! As a child, I was more captivated by the 'fancy' items, like a stump work picture or an oyster walnut mirror, but now, perhaps, I have more appreciation for something more dark and spare in a design too. 

Summerill & Bishop x Emily Mitchell Ceramics  

Unusual forms and things that have fallen out of use often inspire my work. I love going to museums and looking at collections of antique objects. References that I draw upon often include 17th and 18th century kitchenware. I am inspired by particular periods in history, but also by the particularity of an object that might have been mass produced but has now survived as something unique. I could list so many other inspirations! A few are: Antique jewellery, Elizabethan miniatures, antique embroidery and lace, the 15th century paintings of Lucas Cranach and the films of Powell & Pressburger! 

One of my new favourites is Tristram Shandy. I love to listen while I'm working and this novel made me laugh out loud. I love listening to books that I'd never actually read on paper. I'm not sure how they inspire my ceramics, but the stories I listen to as I work somehow weave themselves into my thoughts and the process. 

I enjoy collaging elements to make and design new forms. I enjoy being in the moment of making and the surprise of how things evolve as I work. I generally like extravagant forms! Given a lump of clay, I am excited and interested to see how it might be manipulated through the process of making, into something both unique and useful. 

Do you have a  favourite piece from the Summerill & Bishop x Emily Mitchell collection? 

I love the S&B black and white check table linen collaboration with Claridge's. I think I could make a great dress from it! 

  Green Laurel Simple Tulipere Vase
Green Laurel Tulipere Vase with Gold Ornaments