BRIDGEWATER - factory visit

finally from my bridgewater report a look around the factory itself. located in stoke-on-trent, staffordshire an area of the UK that has been a centre for ceramics since the 17th century. all the greats are here wedgewood, spode, royal doulton. since 1996 the bridgewater factory has been located at the eastwood works, a large victorian factory previously owned by wedgewood and meakin. the tour starts with the raw clay being turned into liquid slip which is piped to a team of craftsman who use it to fill plaster moulds of the familiar bridgewater shapes.above : plaster moulds laid out in the casting shop, below : teapots and mugs fresh out of their plaster moulds.
below : plates and bowls are not made with liquid slip, but instead are cut from rolls of clay into slices, rolled out, and thrown onto moulds.
below : ladies smooth off by hand the seams left by the two halves of the mould. this is known as sponge fettling.
the pieces are the sent of to the biscuit kiln to be baked hard ready for decorating, below : the famous bridgewater polka dots are sponged by hand onto a teapot.

above : you can see the individual sponges for each dot colour laid out. below : the figs design being sponged, the pink figs will be dark cobalt blue when fired.

above & below : all the decorated biscuitware stacked up waiting to be glazed.

above : a large polka dot bowl is dipped in glaze, this is the last time you can see the design until its been fired. below : glazed pottery is stacked onto 'kiln cars' ready to be wheeled into the huge kiln behind.

finally the finished designs are delivered to the warehouse ready to be individually packed and shipped out to shops all over the world.

big thanks to shirley at bridgewater for arranging the whole day and looking after us. and to emma bridgewater herself for taking the time to meet with me and discuss print & pattern.

all pictures copyright print & pattern.