LONDON, UK — This brief interview with London designer Billy Lloyd illustrates something we’ve always suspected: the divisions between terms like “potter” and “designer” are pretty permeable.
Our potter readers may bristle, but Lloyd doesn’t seem to have much malice in him when he says he “evolved” from a potter. Rather, he makes his practice sound like an extension of his earlier work. He likes to make objects that are bold, yet have an ability to blend in with the background. What appears to be a common paper cup from Starbucks is actually a ceramic teapot with a spout. A vase reveals itself to be a set of nested teacups. Mundane objects are actually exciting ones, a realization that elevates both Lloyd’s designs and the truly mundane objects around one’s home.
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His sensibilities sound like the old adage about engineering: you’re done designing when you can’t remove anything else. Lloyd says that this trick of conflating the exciting and the mundane is an exercise in paring back superfluous detail. The objects can be bold on their own, but they need to suspend your disbelief or else they fail.
Lloyd graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 2006, according to his biography. He went on to assist Lisa Hammond at Maze Hill Pottery for one year before embarking on a four year apprenticeship with potter and writer Julian Stair. Upon winning the Cockpit Arts Award in 2011, Billy established his first independent studio in Deptford, where he remained for three years before moving to a larger space at the historic Iliffe Yard in 2014.
Billy has developed an innovative and ambitious style of working through a hands-on understanding of ceramic materials and processes, according to his biography. Furthermore, he has learnt various modelling and mould making techniques and developed relationships with highly skilled model makers, mould makers and specialist manufacturers in Stoke-on-Trent and abroad.
Bill Rodgers is the Managing Editor of cfile.daily.
Do you love or loathe these works of contemporary ceramics? Let us know in the comments.
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