Understanding Shape

February 26, 2008

When designer and head of product development, Thea Mehl, visited Thomas Allen in Stoke-on-Trent last year, she felt designer envy. Having spent some of her student time in ceramics studios, she was “instantly jealous” seeing Thomas’s workbench and potter’s wheel.

Thomas is a shape prodigy – he talks about curves and transitional shapes as if he was born understanding how they relate to each other and the space they occupy. His enthusiasm for his work could make anyone jealous, designer or not, because to be that passionate about something is truly enviable.

The fact that his talent matches his passion is evident as you wander around his studio past a vast array of beautiful ceramic plates, cups, and coffee pots. But it was a simple flowerpot, sitting on a windowsill, that became the starting point for the Oyyo range he would later create.

The flower pot’s flowing shapes, a round base lifted into an oval top, became the inspiration for the range’s foundation piece: the Pot. From this starting point, Thomas developed plates, bowls, jugs and mugs – all encompassing the lightness and fluidity of his original design.