What Is Spongeware?

Emma was keen to bring back folk pottery traditions yet use the technique to create hand-sponged ceramics in an original and contemporary way. She began her research in 1984 and went on to set up her first company: Brixton Spongeware. She filled sketchbooks with possible motifs. However, finding natural sponges to make a large motif was not the easiest thing to do; she stopped at every chemist she passed in search of vestiges of the hard sponge stem which had invariably been cut off.

In her very first catalogue, Emma wrote, “We seem to have lost touch with the creation of simple yet dignified decorative domestic ware. We have been in grave danger of losing a vital part of our inheritance …. Bridgewater has brought one of the jolliest techniques back to life in Stoke-on-Trent. Using the cut root of a natural sponge and strong traditional colours, the paintresses have employed their under-utilised skills to re-learning the making of spongeware.

Emma had always been excited by patterns on fabrics, and 20th century textile designs – especially William Morris ones – were a primary source of inspiration.

There’s also a strong affinity between the technique of block printing on cotton (where wood is carved into a motif) and sponge printing on pottery. (She claims her best textiles find ever to be a pile of teenage party dresses from the 1960s, with the bold bright patterns as the starting point for Bright Flowers, Peace & Love and Hearts & Flowers.)

Emma’s first patterns were based on repeats and combinations of an odd group of motifs, such as a bow with ribbons, a diamond, rabbit and monkey, to create simplistic patterns. Her designs turned a corner after developing a range of colours inspired by traditional spongeware pottery and discovering how she could scatter larger motifs freely – including over the back or inside of a piece. 

Her first real breakthrough was Chintz, a faded-looking rose used to conjure an atmosphere of comfy sofas full of dogs sleeping in front of a fire, which led to a whole range of her favourite flowers: Morning Glory, Lilies and Tulips. 
Take a look at how folk pottery traditions continue to inspire our handmade ceramics today – Behind The Design: Folk Art

Today we use normal synthetic sponge, just like the sponge in sofa cushions.
We create the patterns in our decorating studio, then our small specialist team cuts them into sponges using soldering irons and tweezers. It can take from 30 minutes to up to 3 hours to create each sponge, which may only last for one week.

As well as sponges used to paint on motifs, we have different types of sponges for every task and shape – with some weird and wonderful names. For instance, a “teardrop” to delicately apply paint to difficult-to-reach contours and a “diddler” for smoothing, especially for tight spaces such as inside teapots and mugs.

Our skilled decorators sit next to a type of giant Lazy Susan that they turn to painstakingly decorate each piece of biscuit ware: sponge by sponge, colour by colour – all by hand. Because the biscuit is so absorbent, the paint is absorbed into the handmade ceramics right away. 

Some pieces are very simple, like Polka Dot which is probably our best-known spongeware pattern. Others, like the dahlias and daffodils in our Spring Flowers collection are incredibly complicated with each mug taking up to 15 minutes to decorate. An experienced decorator can create 200 mugs a day. 

Every Emma Bridgewater decorator trains for a month or two before their pieces are good enough to go into production, but it can be up to a year before they can hand-decorate our more intricate patterns requiring a variety of sponges and many different colours. Egg & Feather is one of the most time-consuming as it uses six different colours and over a dozen sponges.

There's absolutely no room for mistakes and each piece of ceramic craftsmanship is completely unique and signed beside the backstamp on the bottom with the decorator’s initials. (Some customers even collect pieces by their favourite decorator!)