Meet The Makers – The Allitts

Could you tell us more about your collaborative relationship? How did it first begin, and how has it developed over time?

Our collaboration began in the 1970s while we were studying Fine Art. We’ve worked together on creative projects since then and it seemed natural to us that with a shared love of form, pattern and design we’d apply this to ceramics. The collaboration has evolved organically over time, deepening through years of being together, and continues to be sustained by mutual curiosity, trust, and a willingness to challenge one another creatively.

We both worked for many years at Kettle’s Yard house and gallery in Cambridge so its close association with British Modernism and the St Ives School has tempered our older interests in post-war abstraction and the structured repetition found in minimalism, where control and spontaneity sit side by side.

Is your practice collaborative at every stage of the process, or are there particular aspects where each of you takes on distinct roles?

Ideas emerge through conversation and experimentation, and every piece passes through both our hands at different stages. There is a constant exchange of ideas and decision-making, though we each bring individual strengths and perspectives to the process. Paul, for example, is skilled at turning our rough drawings into stencils on our cutting machine.

How do you support, challenge, and inspire one another in the studio?

Through both making and critical discussion. And, because we know each other’s instincts well, we can be direct when something isn’t working and encourage new approaches. Inspiration often comes from shared experiences, whether an exhibition, architecture, a found object, or a technical discovery.

Could you walk us through your creative process? What is the journey of a piece from initial idea through to completion, and how does it evolve along the way?

Most new pieces begin with a discussion around shape, pattern, or a particular visual idea, prompted by rough sketches on scraps of paper, or looking at old pots we’d set aside for the moment. We often make paper models to test how a pattern will work on a three-dimensional form. Then the making itself, rolling clay, applying coloured slip using stencils, cutting out, assembling, firing and glazing. The process always contains a degree of risk, the way slips mature, the relationship between matte and gloss surfaces, the subtle effects of heat, these can never be predicted entirely.  

Throughout this process, the work continues to evolve. Decisions are often adjusted in response to its current form or to unexpected possibilities that emerge during making, suggesting new directions and ideas for future work.

How has your relationship to ceramics evolved over time?

Our early work was more functional, including mugs, bowls, and vases. Over time our focus shifted towards objects made primarily as artworks. As our understanding of the material has deepened, ceramics has become a way to bring together our interests in structure, colour, and surface.

What draws you to surface, colour, and pattern as your central focus?

We’re drawn to the way pattern can activate a form, creating movement, rhythm, and spatial relationships across an object. Modernist art and design continue to provide important reference points, particularly the balance between clarity, structure and visual play, a belief that materials and form should be used honestly. We’re interested in how colour and pattern can transform a simple form, creating layers of meaning and inviting closer attention. Surface becomes a place where ideas about painting, design, and ceramics intersect.

Finally, what do you hope people feel or experience when encountering your work?

We hope people experience a sense of curiosity and pleasure. While the pieces draw on references from modernism, design, and ceramic traditions, we want them to be accessible and engaging on a visual and tactile level. We hope viewers are drawn in by the interplay of form, pattern, colour, and surface, and that the work rewards sustained looking. We’d like the pieces to be appreciated as objects in their own right, made for their intrinsic nature rather than function. Though we won’t tut if a dried flower finds its way in.

View Marée and Paul Allitt’s collection in gallery and online now