The shape maker

Sue Pryke has unearthed a childhood treasure. It’s a white melamine plate, with a chip to one edge. Ordinary? Possibly. But there’s something about it. It’s crisp in design and not round, but square. A survivor from our aviation history, when 20th-century names like Robin and Lucienne Day styled interiors for BOAC Super VC10’s, this piece would have featured in an on-flight dining service. Its ergonomic shape ensured comfort of use, efficiency and style. Pryke is fascinated by it. As a child, this is what she chose to play with, eschewing the round, red tea set on offer.

It is tempting to take this plate as the genesis of Pryke’s work today. She calls herself a shape designer. To most she is a designer maker, known for her sophisticated, utilitarian pieces that have a particular quality of stillness to them. Her passion is tableware. Her tactile tea bowls and teapots, plates and pourers sing out as beautiful stand-alone pieces. Together they turn a laden table into a scape that is both soothing and highly individual.

Pryke’s style has led to her consulting, collaborating and designing for names such as IKEA, Marks & Spencer and John Lewis. Her ideals chime with those of figures like William Morris, in that she can’t see why good design and fine pieces should not be accessible and affordable for everyone.

Based in her workshop in a former textile factory outside Leicester, Pryke shares a particular groundedness with such figures. She is a mindful maker, but with a rigorous practicality to her approach. A delve into her background reveals why. She comes from a farming family who worked the land in Lincolnshire, surrounded by soil and soaring skies. ‘My father was a top grower who grew