Not since CD Jackfield was first established back in 1872 has there been such a sense of ‘anything is possible’. Whilst the company is proud of its heritage, it has made a conscious decision not to be defined by it. Instead, it is enjoying the thrills of collaborating on some fashionable, designer-led projects, both for private and public locations, and gaining some enthusiastic followers.
“In our opinion, the tiles in the dining room are the real showstopper. They started life as a simple 15cm inspiration image on a mood-board and were reproduced and scaled up to the size they are now by Craven Dunnill Jackfield – the only UK company willing to have a go.” The quote is from a restaurant group, following the successful manufacture of massive fleur-de-lys capped columns along a ceramic wall for a new restaurant and is typical of client enthusiasm. Adrian Blundell, production director at the manufacturer explains: “Such vast, 3D ceramic pieces had never been successfully fired before, to our knowledge; there is a myriad of unknowns when working with clay and glazes but the team thrives on these one-off projects, which are the lifeblood of our business”.
Individual characteristics
Decorative ceramics provide a wealth of potential features to create drama and personality, whilst also being durable:
- Bold, intense colours and tones, thanks to specialised glaze recipes.
- Attractive surface effects, from crackle glazes to embossed motifs, provide unlimited texture and visual appeal.
- Three-dimensional interest in the form of ceramic ornamentation, anything from human heads to pineapples.
- The ability to scale-up from a small feature wall to a grand expanse.
- Suitable for internal and external use, from individual art tiles and ceramic hand-rails for an exclusive swimming pool to themed floor tiles.
- Robust and durable, requiring minimal maintenance.
The CD Jackfield team certainly succeed in making working with ceramics a pleasurable experience for both designer and client. Frances Priest, the designer of The Tiled Corridor, Edinburgh Hospital, refers to the experience of working with the company as “like gold dust”. The company has also recently completed a project in collaboration with the inspirational artist Brian Clarke at The Brian Clarke Studio.
Blundell says that designers and architects should not hesitate to embrace decorative ceramics within their projects, regardless of whether they have experience of working in the medium or not. “Customers come to us with little more than a vision or a few sketches and it is down to us to turn them into reality”. The company provides the ceramic expertise from concept to installation, including producing CAD designs, carving moulds, hand-crafting the ceramics, mixing glaze recipes for trials, offering advice on fixing and liaising with the installers.
The message is clear, ceramics has never been so dynamic, nor so accessible.