BY Safir Kaylan | April 14, 2011

The meaning of back stamps
 

Supported by the Heritage Art Council, Made in England project is lead by Emma Biggs, a mosaicist and artist with a great set of skills. The project is set in the pottery towns of Stroke-on Trent. Workshops are set in the community where individuals make their own back stamps, patterns and mosaic.

Ceramics pieces, plates and cups  marks on the back only get attention when value or rarity of the pieces are questioned.  These marks are mostly disregarded.

This project aims to reexamine the meaning of the back stamps: a social history of England, how England saw itself through the history, changing nature of their appeal to women, ideas about nationhood, technological developments and signs of people who made them such as prints, brushstrokes and number of pieces. 

By looking at the everyday objects at local, national and international level, the project intends to show the appreciation for those who spend their lives in the industry and currently made redundant for more competitive priced products of the Far East, especially China where the ceramic history extends with " china". However, the high skilled workers in China are also as vulnerable as their English counterparts due to giant industrial producers.

The first part of project starts in Stroke, continues in London and ends in China.