Lorna Bailey

Last updated 13th, October, 2008

LORNA Bailey is one of the most celebrated ceramic designers to come out of Stoke-on-Trent in recent years.

It all began for Lorna when, at the age of just 13, she decided she wanted to make a name for herself in the pottery industry.

Five years on, she achieved her ambition, thanks partly to the means of her father Lionel, who spent thousands of pounds opening a pottery factory for his daughter.

In 2008, by the time 30-year-old Lorna had retired, in order to spend more time with her young family, she had been heralded as the successor to design great Clarice Cliff. And Lorna’s pottery wares are still being snapped up by collectors all over the world.

Lorna Bailey was born on February 10, 1978 and brought up in Dimsdale View East, Porthill, attending Ellison Primary School in Wolstanton, and Wolstanton High School.

In 1995, Lorna was approaching the end of her BTEC national diploma in ceramic design at Stoke-on-Trent College – and facing unemployment.

Her father, antiques dealer Lionel Bailey, had an unshakeable belief in Lorna’s talent as a designer.

Mr Bailey and his business partner, solicitor Geoff Stanway, bought equipment from the defunct Wood & Son, in Longport, Stoke-on-Trent, and took over the Old Ellgreave Pottery in Burslem. It was re-christened LJB Ceramics, after Lorna Jennifer Bailey.

Lorna had planned to go to university to do a BA and then an MA in ceramic design after finishing the BTEC course, but the launch of the pottery factory put paid to that plan.

Initially, Lionel Bailey let his daughter produce one-off designs which were sent as free samples to customers. But soon their popularity saw the designs put into production and Lorna employed as sole designer.

For three days a week while at still at college, she put in at least two hours a night on the shop floor, drawing up, making and perfecting her designs, before painting and signing them.

During her four days out of the classroom, she worked up to nine hours a day doing the same thing.

Sales were already going well, as Lorna left college. Then, in 1997, Stoke-on-Trent’s highly successful Ceramic Showcase brought the business well over £6,000 worth of extra orders.

In 1997, Lorna told The Sentinel: “I wanted to be a ceramic designer from the age of 13.

“I'd grown up surrounded by names like Clarice Cliff, Charlotte Rhead and Susie Cooper because of my dad's business.

“I'd probably be at university now if the factory hadn't opened. It’s hard to find a job in ceramic design anyway. I don't think anyone wants you in this field unless you have a university degree.

“I like to think my designs are cheerful and very bright, and I hope people like them.”

People did, and by 1997, the factory was operating with a small workforce of nine, including Lorna and her father, producing only hand-made ware, much of it based on 1930s shapes, reminiscent of Clarice Cliff.

In 1998, demand for the then 20-year-old designer’s wares was so great that workers at LJB Ceramics were battling to cope with a six-week waiting list for orders.

Lorna was even forced to launch a collectors’ club for her art deco vases, teapots and bowls so that eager buyers were not forced to pay up to nine times their true cost price at auction.

LJB Ceramcis expanded production by moving into the old Crownford Works, off Newcastle Street, Burslem.

Among Lorna’s best-selling vases, jugs, teapots, bowls and cruets were ranges titled Stoke-on-Trent, Dingle and Park Avenue. They were all based on her surroundings growing up in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire.

By December 1998, the company needed to install a new kiln to increase production still further due to demand in Britain and America. Then, the company employed 32 staff and had an annual turnover of more than £500,000.

LJB Ceramcis also spent £50,000 buying the name and some assets of the troubled Tunstall-based Old Court, while its worldwide collectors’ club numbered more than 1,200.

At the Collect It collectors' fair at Stoneleigh that year, all 130 items on Lorna Bailey’s stand sold out in just 40 minutes.

The following year, turnover peaked at just under £700,000 and LJB Ceramics opened its own factory shop near its Newcastle Street, Burslem, base. It increased its workforce to 45 and saw its collectors’ club membership swell to more than 2,200.

Lorna Bailey was also voted The Sentinel Businesswoman of the Year.

And the company boosted its international profile, by sponsoring World Darts Champion Phil Taylor.

In 2001, the company was swamped with orders for Lorna’s new art-deco collectible cats, which are still popular today.

Also that year, she was honoured with her first ever art exhibition, at the Borough Museum and Art Gallery in Brampton Park, Newcastle.

By then, Lorna Bailey was well established as one of the best pottery designers of her generation, being frequently described as ‘the next Clarice Cliff’.

More success followed in 2002, when she extended her collectible cats to include a feline bride, groom, bridesmaid and pageboy to commemorate her wedding to fiance Timothy Proctor, at St Mary’s Church in Knutton.

In 2003, LJB Ceramics relocated again, to the giant former Price and Kensington teapot plant in Longport, complete with its own Lorna Bailey Visitors’ Centre, which attracted 15,000 visitors in just six months.

Now known as Lorna Bailey Artware, the company announced record profits of £90,000 to celebrate its 10th year in 2005.

The company relocated for the fourth time to a new site in Wedgwood Street, Burslem, opening both a retail shop and a collectors’ centre to offer exclusive wares for the now 5,200 members of its collectors club.

But, cheap, imported goods, and a general downturn within the pottery industry took its toll on even a specialist designer like Lorna Bailey, and year-on-year turnover dipped.

In February, 2008, Lorna announced to the world that she was retiring after 13 years of success, planning to spend more time with her family.

At the time, she told The Sentinel: “It has been a very difficult decision to make, but it is important for me personally to concentrate on my family.

“I would just like to say thank you to all of the people of Stoke-on-Trent for all of their support.”

By May, Lorna Bailey Artware had gone into voluntary liquidation, owing creditors about £40,000.

Lorna Bailey remains in retirement, while her work is as popular as ever and she rightly deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as her heroes Clarice Cliff, Charlotte Rhead and Susie Cooper.