How Sponge Decorating is done at the Emma Bridgewater Factory in Stoke-On-Trent, England.

Each piece of Emma Bridgewater spongeware pottery is decorated using hand-cut sponges, a technique that was first developed in the nineteenth century, and which gives our pottery its colourful and idiosyncratic charm. Emma or Matthew design all of the patterns in our decorating studio, which are then cut into sponges using soldering irons on the factory floor. If you click on the link to the video opposite you can watch Rita or one of the team of twenty decorators creating some of the pieces that might make their way to your kitchen table. Some of these designs are really intricate. Just think of all the different shapes used on our Union Jack teapot, for example!
We hope that you will enjoyed the video and that it might even inspire you to come and visit us in our lovely factory on the banks of the Caldon Canal in Stoke on Trent, where you can enjoy a factory tour and even try your hand at hand decorating one of your own pieces. We hope that you enjoy the video, and we hope to see you at the factory soon, too. For more information, visit us at www.emmabridgewater.co.uk