Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2016 | Page 30

ANNE’S POSH
DOG BOWLS
SET TO BECOME
COLLECTABLES
When Island ceramic artist Anne Brown took a call asking
her to hand-paint over 100 dog bowls for a celebrity
client, she might have been forgiven for thinking
it was an elaborate hoax.

In fact, the call in April was absolutely
kosher – and by August, Anne and her
small team at Fired Art Ceramics in Ryde
had painted, fired and despatched 130
of the upmarket bowls for pampered
pooches, which are now selling as a
sought-after limited edition for £60 each.
The order originated from the chi-chi
handbag designer Lulu Guinness, whose
sister Daphne happened to be opening a
new dog-friendly conservatory extension at
her restaurant in Chelsea in the summer.
The idea was to offer water and ‘dog
biscottis’ in the quirky designer bowls
– embellished with a Lulu Guinness
original doggy drawing and the
designer’s trademark red lips logo – to
diners’ pet dogs.
The bowls attracted national media
attention in publications including the
London Evening Standard and Country
Living magazine – partly thanks to the fact
that Simon le Bon’s model wife Yasmin
made an appearance at the late summer
launch event.
For the little Ryde-based business, it was
a real triumph – and has certainly given
owner Anne a thirst for more similarly
offbeat commissions.

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“I have absolutely no idea how they
found us” says Anne, whose regular
business revolves around painting
personalised plates and mugs for
weddings, births and other special family
occasions. She also offers popular D-I-Y
sessions and parties where customers can
paint their own ceramics.

“We were all pretty excited
waiting for Lulu Guinness
design to come through, and
when it did they wanted a
sample bowl a few days later,
which we put on the hovercraft
and was then couriered to
London from Portsmouth.”

“Originally I was asked to hand paint 150
of the dog bowls” she says, “but when I
went to my wholesalers they only had 130,
so that’s what the agent settled for.

“We were all pretty excited waiting for
Lulu Guinness design to come through,
and when it did they wanted a sample
bowl a few days later, which we put on
the hovercraft and was then couriered to
London from Portsmouth.”
Once they had the go-ahead, Anne
and her two staff Julie Hardy and Angela
Afonso formed a mini assembly line and
had the ir heads down for six weeks to
produce the remaining 129 bowls.
Now that they look likely to become
collector’s items, Anne says: “It was pretty
exciting to get that order and quite a
coup for a little business on the Isle of
Wight. We’d certainly love some more
work like that!”

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