About Red Earth Designs
Karen and Claire graduated from the University of Ulster at Belfast in 1996, each with a BA. Honours Degree and then in 1998 with a Masters in Fine and Applied Art, ready to take on the world, but first, a bit of retail experience was necessary.
After two years with various jobs in the retail industry, enough management experience had been gained to begin the search for Studio premises. Alongside this, they were busy completing the LEDU (now Invest NI) business start up course, and approaching the Princes Trust, business plan in hand, for any help they could offer.
The search for premises took them to Townsend Enterprise Park, an ideal location close to the city centre, from where they still work today, with a fully equipped Pottery studio and a fully equipped Framing studio.
Red Earth is open to the general public to call in and visit. They undertake commissions, framing and have a full display of ceramics for sale.
Claire and Karen have now been successfully trading for ten years and still get great enjoyment and satisfaction from making and selling their work. Their sixteen years experience of ceramics has lead them to experiment with many making processes and techniques, which have, in-turn led to a very distinct style of work.
It has been described as beautiful, fresh, innovative, contemporary, modern and unique.
Through honing their specialist skills, they both concentrated on hand building as the preferred method of making, and so it was a natural progression to move from the wholesale market, to specialising in designing and making Awards for the corporate sector.
They now have an extensive portfolio of Awards and are very busy with repeat orders and new contracts.
Check out our online brochure (pdf) or contact us for the hard copy brochure!
THE BUSINESS
There are five separate aspects to our business services:
Unique Ceramic Awards; For the Corporate sector / commission
Gallery Collection; One-off Sculptural works for exhibition and commission
Retail Collection; A range of affordable quirky, ever evolving ceramic pieces, predominantly in porcelain.
Community; Working closely with community groups/ schools to create ceramic artworks for the community. Projects culminate in the production of large and small scale ceramic pieces for indoor or outdoor display, with full participation from the groups.
Picture Framing; Bespoke Custom Picture Framing, for Artists, Photographers, Galleries and the General Public.
