Telling our stories through tiles

During the global pandemic our ‘Create a Crest’ project saw over 400 clay tiles picked up by residents which they then used to create their ‘house crest’ designs during the UK wide lockdown. The completed tiles were taken to various pick up points over the parish and collected by Dave Wadsworth the owner of ‘The Pottery’ in Alfreton. Dave then glazed each individual tile before firing them in the kiln. Then with they were installed in their villages in Balckwell, Hilcote, Newton and Westhouses for all to see.

Check out our image gallery below for some close ups of some of the fantastic designs that were submitted!

Project Facilitator, Jodie Cresswell-Waring commented on the project: ‘I think this was the project that really glued us altogether on the Greater Creative team. We got to grips with Zoom, plotted the project together thinking in very challenging circumstances and got to work with a local artist in a new way!  It was really special to reach so many households (400!) and to do this as a cross parish project (with all the covid rules and regs) it was quite the triumph. What has resonated with me since was a message we got to feedback on the project when someone dropped their crest for firing – and they said the project was important to them and made them feel less isolated. That felt really massive to me at the time and it really spurred us all on to continue thinking about reaching all corners in our community on our participatory projects.’

We had the please to work with Dave Wadsworth from The Pottery in Alfreton on the project. Dave is the 12-year proprietor of ‘The Pottery & Tearooms’ in Alfreton. He is known for his distinctive unique green glazes, sought after stoneware & one-off pieces which are crafted & inspired through medieval & Japanese techniques. We caught up with Dave to hear his thoughts on the ’Create a Crest’ project:

“I have to admit that when we were first approached and asked if the pottery could be involved with the project my initial thoughts were that it was a VERY ambitious project! I was keen to get involved though as our own work during lockdown had all but dried up, I think that most people just assumed that we had shut. We’d been running our ‘Paint a Pot’ service but more as a takeaway with the public collecting and dropping off pots at our porch area. We realised that people were missing the pottery environment whilst they created with clay, and also that some people simply didn’t feel comfortable leaving the house. So ‘Create a Crest’ seemed like a fantastic way to reach a lot of people, especially those that might not have heard of us before. The project has also been a fantastic opportunity for us to try things out and learn a lot more about working with people remotely. We’ve really had to think about what instructions to give to people to help them to create their pieces because in a face to face situation you can react and step in to guide people along the way. Working in this way we’ve had to prep more, do a lot more for people to ensure that the materials were ready and could be worked with successfully, whilst also making sure the instructions were simple and as precise as possible. I don’t think that this was necessarily a bad thing either, it’s just meant that each piece was more uniform which actually lends itself well to the planned public installations. That said the final designs have all been vastly different even though there was a common goal it’s been great to see the different results and thoughts behind each piece.For us as an arts-based business the project has been a lifeline really. It’s led to new commissions from a couple of schools in the area who saw Create a Crest and wanted to work on a similar project with their pupils, coming to us for materials and guidance. It’s also been a brilliant way of networking with new local contacts especially members of the Greater Creative working party. It was wonderful to be asked to be involved as we were starting to worry that people were beginning to forget that we were here during the last few months. This project has gone a long way to maintaining our presence locally.”