For those of you who like to appreciate the talented people who make the products you choose, below is the long-read version of the stories behind a few of our skilled craftspeople. Pop the kettle on, make yourself a cuppa (in a Denby mug of course) and learn about how why choosing Denby means you choose feel-good ceramics with purpose and soul.
Andy, Handler.
My name is Andrew and I’ve been at Denby for 27 years. I work in the small holloware department and I have various jobs from applying handles onto pots to inspecting items when they come out of the drier. I also operate the machines as I’m a Maker, so that includes the machines known as, Mug 1, Mug 3 and Mug 4. Each machine makes different pieces, for instance, Mug 1 is a small machine that makes items such as sugar bowls. I also turn pots too. My tasks vary and require lots of unique skills. I do move around the factory working in several departments.
I remember being shown around the pottery for the first time, and seeing 3 people sticking the handles onto pots, and I thought, wow! The ceramics appear on a conveyor belt and they were responsible for taking a pot, putting it onto their stand, selecting a handle, dipping it in liquid slip, applying it into the correct position, wiping off the excess of slip, cleaning it and then putting it gently onto the drier. It took them about 4 seconds to complete!
I find turning pots the hardest and this took the longest to learn. There are some very talented turners in the team and I’m still learning from them! Everyone helps each other and is very nice and friendly. When turning, the pot spins around at great speed so you have to be controlled in order to create the right shape. It’s a challenging task and can take years to master.
I work on a wide variety of shapes and I enjoy seeing the different designs coming through. I have the Greenwich range at home. I make my own homemade marmalade, lime curd and lemon curd so I have that for my breakfast on toast on my Greenwich dinner plates, every weekend. In my kitchen, we have a shelf of Greenwich and Craftsman mugs all hanging up too. I love the deep green tone of Greewich – it’s very natural, like the shade of greenery.
I’m actually retiring in July this year and I’m going to miss Denby a lot. I will miss the people, the product and the Christmas dinners! I’ve enjoyed when we’ve had visitors as well – such as the time we had Princess Anne visit. People are always fascinated by what we do and Denby has such a great history of making tableware.
Sue, Hand Painter.
My name is Sue and I’m a Production Operator at Denby. At the moment I am looking after dipping our mugs, and in particular, the double dipping technique. Some pieces need double dipping which means they get rinsed and then dipped, leaving a small gap at the top of them. Our Halo and Blue Haze mugs are double dipped to get that beautiful glaze effect.
It took me about two months of training to be able to double dip. I do really enjoy it and I also work on hand decorating, which is what I first started doing when I came to Denby about 14 years ago.
I originally applied for a position in our warehouse but knew I would like working here in the pottery, so later moved to decorating. After that, I moved to our large holloware department where I learnt how to trim, tow, rinse and hand paint - discover our pottery dictionary here.
I will go and help out in different areas as needed but my favourite part of my job is the hand painting. I find it quite therapeutic, and I can listen to the radio and focus on painting patterns (and singing!).
I like our neutral ceramics the best as they go with any décor, such as Natural Canvas and our James Martin Everyday pieces. For pattern, I do love our Monsoon ranges, especially Chrysanthemum with its white, black and gold colour palette.
Dean, Operations Director.
My name is Dean and I’ve been at Denby since 1999. My first role at Denby was Quality Manager. My next position after that was Group Compliance Manager, then Technical and Compliance Manager and Head of Manufacturing, and I’m now the Operations Director. When I first started, I was working on collections such as Reflex Blue, Boston Blue, Imperial Blue which is still a classic range now, Boston Spa, Daybreak and Harlequin.
I look after our manufacturing facility, quality control, the new product development function, engineering, environmental and health and safety. I enjoy the variability of my role, that’s the most interesting part. No two days are the same and it’s satisfying seeing the process from raw clay to finished product. We turn the clay into such beautiful, elegant, usable, and long-lasting pieces. The people at Denby are all so great, they make Denby very special. It’s always been a friendly and welcoming place to work and has a family feel. For instance, in the engineering team, I’m working with the grandchildren of people I was working with 20 years ago.
When I first joined Denby I was surprised at how much time it takes to make our ceramics, as I had come from a fast-paced engineering background. If we make a change to a decorated design, it’s got to go through 36 hours in a kiln before we know the outcome!
Quality is very important to us and what we manufacture is to a very high standard. Our environmental standards are crucial too – we recycle water and discharge clean water using our Water Treatment Plant. We are now zero to landfill for our process waste and we employ a full-time Environmental Officer to oversee our evolving sustainable processes. We are also ISO 14001 compliant.
I still find it fascinating to see a product go into the kiln and then to see the impact of the reaction, which produces our unique glaze effects. Some of our patterns have been created by mistakes, beautiful mistakes in the kiln – such as being fired at different points in the kiln can change the entire look. It’s the magic of fire!
Studio Grey is my favourite design and what I use at home. It goes with everything, I use it every day, and it’s easy to dress it up for more formal meals. You can use it for a TV dinner and a dinner party!
Denise, Handler.
My name is Denise and I’m a handler at Denby. I started at Denby about 20 years ago in department 9A, in banding. In that role I used to paint the edge of plates, saucers and some bowls. About a year later, I moved into fulfilment where I packed up orders and then went into glazing where I was responsible for hand trimming pots. I’m now a handler and work on attaching handles to our mugs – it’s my favourite job!
When I arrive in a morning, I find my station and get set-up. I use a slip bowl with liquid clay in and ensure the handles are lined up and ready. The machine starts at 8am and I work on around 1,700 pieces a day. I’ve taught a lot of people how to do it - it can take up to a month to master handling perfectly. At first, it took a lot of patience to sit and practise. When I’m teaching others how to apply handles, I show them step-by-step and use a figure of eight to wipe the slip off. The figure of eight helps because when you tip the handle into the slip, you have to turn it sideways and knock some slip clay off with your sponge, otherwise it will run down and won’t fit to the glaze. The handle then gets attached and I use a wet wedge sponge to clear the excess slip and make a seal. I can tell just by looking if the handles are not correctly placed – my eyes are the best tool! Selecting a focal point on each pot helps, whether it’s 12mm or 18mm, you can focus on that and attach the top of the handle there on every mug.
I’ve got 50 years’ worth of Denby at home. My partner also worked here for 50 years so I’ve got a loft full! We like to change what range we use every month. I think my favourite is still Regency Green and in particular, the Craftsman Mug. It’s a classic with a lovely shape and a nice chunky handle.
Neil, Production Supervisor.
My name is Neil and I’m a Production Supervisor at Denby, in the final inspection department. I’ve been at Denby for 29 years now and live locally. Before this job, I worked in hosiery but I’ve always worked in inspection. In 2000, I became Team Leader and then I progressed to Production Supervisor for inspection.
I look after both flatware and holloware – flatware is mostly plates and holloware includes mugs, bowls and teapots etc. I look after 30 people in total. I enjoy the challenges that my job involves, the daily processes, getting the processes and target figures sorted. I’m responsible for making sure that the quality is right and what the inspectors are passing. I’m always on hand if they’ve got any queries, we have a good team. There are lots of new patterns being introduced all of the time, so I’m the go-between, and work with the new product teams to make sure that what we are passing is the best quality. Every range differs and we look closely for cracks, blue spots, body holes and colour variation – a blue spot is contamination of the colour on the white glaze. We have a selection of colour tiles to work to in order to ensure the colours are correct.
We’ve just started a new 1-2-1 training program and we base this over 6 months. It seems to be working well. There are dissimilarities on every Denby piece, but that’s the beauty of Denby being handcrafted, and that’s all part of the education in our department. The new training includes back stamp application and foot polishing as well. We train everyone how to use the back stamp machine and how long to foot polish for. All of our items are foot polished for the same amount of time, about 2 seconds. It’s very fast in order to remove the fine kiln dust. We hope to finish around 160,000 pieces this week!
Halo is my favourite pattern. It used to be Imperial Blue as it’s iconic to Denby, but now I think it’s Halo. I quite like Studio Grey as well, which is a variation. When I first started at Denby, I worked on the Marrakesh design and we’ve now evolved from there with double dip plates and the speckle effect. Not a lot has changed in the way we make things here over the years, but there are more complex patterns with the speckle glaze and they are more difficult to inspect. Each Halo piece is different, whereas Imperial Blue is simpler and more uniform. No two pieces of Halo are the same! And no two days are the same in inspection as there are so many different items.