Author: Bridie Hall

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Workroom Profile VIII: Marianna Kennedy

15 September 2015
Ben Pentreath
4 Comments

Marianna Kennedy was born in Canada but has lived and worked in the Spitalfields area of East London for twenty-five years. Her work reinterprets traditional forms, suffusing them with a contemporary aesthetic to produce pieces of timeless beauty. Central to her artistic vision is the respect for craftsmanship; each piece that bears her name is the result of many months of collaboration with traditional British artisans who apply their exacting standards to these modern designs.

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Become our neighbour! Pop-up to let.

26 May 2015
Ben Pentreath
3 Comments

Have you ever fancied yourself as a shopkeeper?

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Workroom Profile VII: David Mitchell Printmaker

16 April 2015
Ben Pentreath
6 Comments

In the early days of the shop we had a few of David Mitchell’s ‘Play on Words’ prints for sale and had always talked about something bigger, ‘an exhibition!’ we all cried, life went on.

Life went on in the way that we all got on with our work and became better and more confident at what we were doing. With David, this was his printmaking. Last year David came to the shop to tell us he was ready, that it was time for a show, and that we were to put a date in the diary. And it is with this workroom profile that I introduce to you the print maker David Mitchell and invite you to join us to celebrate the opening of his exhibition at Pentreath & Hall on the evening of Thursday 23^rd April.

I had been very much looking forward to visiting David’s home and workspace for some time. To find out more about his work and how he came to become a print maker, as an 84 year old retired music teacher it is something he picked up relatively recently, I couldn’t wait to hear his story.

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Workroom Profile VI: Leeds Pottery & Middleport Pottery

26 March 2015
Ben Pentreath
21 Comments

After last week’s final call on the Wedgwood Museum Ravilious mugs, it is with a very heavy heart that I have to tell you our beloved Hunslet Creamware has now been discontinued.

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Workroom Profile V: Melodi Horne Soft Furnishings

11 February 2015
Ben Pentreath
7 Comments

I am sitting down with Melina Blaxland-Horne, newly installed in unit 17a Rugby Street here in Bloomsbury, surrounded by her beautiful silk ikat lampshades and cushions. The first question I have to ask her is “Where did the name Melodi Horne come from?”

A smile spreads across her face “Ok but don’t laugh. No one has ever known this until now. Me. Lo. Di. Melina. Loves. Dimitri.” Dimitri, her husband, is sitting to my left “That’s right” he says “This is all about love.”

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Workroom Profile IV: Ged Palmer Signwriter

30 July 2014
Ben Pentreath
5 Comments

It’s almost been a year since Ben and I signed on the dotted line and decided the fresh start needed a fresh sign. I’ve just realised the original design we had drawn up and planned to have installed last November took ever so slightly longer than anticipated.

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Workroom Profile III: Ed Kluz

25 June 2014
Ben Pentreath
6 Comments

I am constantly bombarded with emails from enthusiastic artists and makers, introducing their wares and strongly recommending that I contact them immediately to place an order or organise an exhibition. I understand the need to get one’s work out there, but more often than not I am rather bamboozled by the quality and subject-matter of the work in question.

Happily, just occasionally this pans out differently, and that was the case with Ed Kluz. A friend of his sent me a link to his website, and Ben and I were instantly smitten. We organised an exhibition, Theatre Britannica, with him, and in the process we became firm friends. One of the many beauties of running a shop are these occasional serendipitous meetings that turn into good business partnerships and even better friendships. Ben and I both own artworks of Ed’s, and I even commissioned him to make a house for my tortoise Winston a couple of years ago.

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Workroom Profile: Peter Hone, Master Plaster Caster

8 May 2014
Ben Pentreath
11 Comments

I’m never normally overwhelmed but on first walking into Peter Hone’s flat with Ben around five years ago, I was dumbstruck, my jaw hit the floor – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Peter was fussing around in the kitchen preparing coffee and the cake we had taken him and I suspect giving us a moment to try to take it all in. Five years on and many more visits later I still find it difficult to believe there exists a place so overwhelmingly beautiful, and it’s essentially a one bedroom flat in Notting Hill.

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Workroom Profile: Bridie Hall at Home

26 March 2014
Ben Pentreath
20 Comments

Beginning a blog featuring our many and varied suppliers has been at the pinnacle of my ‘to do’ list for the last three months. I must admit to suffering from ‘blog block’ and am anxious to do everyone justice.

I’ve been stuck too, on finding a way to concisely yet lovingly describe my visit to the potteries in Stoke-on-Trent last year and what it meant to me. That blog will come, it’s half written, but because of my failure to write anything more, it has set back this whole project.

So, I’ve decided to start with something I know a lot more about, is even dearer to my heart and much closer to home. My studio! It also occurred to me that it is an excellent opportunity to introduce myself.  Although I’m sure the more regular readers of Ben’s blog and visitors to the website will know that I am the Bridie often referred to and I am the Hall in ‘Pentreath & Hall’.