Pure Prue Homeware

I’m on a mission to colour-up the world! And my latest venture is a homewares range called Pure Prue,  available from  www.uniqueandunity.co.uk.

We are starting with a small collection of plates, mugs and bowls, all available in multi-coloured vibrant bone china. I am absolutely THRILLED with them.

They’re made by a company called BlissHome which I tracked down with some difficulty. I’d realised when I liked a great big bowl sporting a blue octopus with its tentacles running over the edge and under the bowl, or Rick Stein’s Coves of Cornwall range, or Nigella Lawson’s pasta dishes, that they all had something in common: they were made by BlissHome. When I finally tracked the company down, it  turned out to be 5 miles from my home and run by Mike and Gabrielle Bliss.

They might be regretting taking me on because I really have to be involved in the design of anything with my name on it, and I’m super-fussy about china.  I don’t like drinking out of thick heavy mugs, that rough pottery feel, and the mini-screech as my knife goes over glazed earthenware puts my teeth on edge. I’m sick of pretty birds and flowers and I dislike mugs with crude jokes or advertising logos.  I like bone china, deep bold colours, artistic and unusual patterns, and a general feeling of joy.

So, we’ve been back and forth with designs, and I think we have finally got there. Of course, I hope loving grannies will buy their granddaughters wedding sets of the full range from dinner-plate to egg cup, but I think it’s far more likely that people will buy the mugs in a set of four different ones, the bluey-turquoise, the yellowy-green and the orangey red.  Or maybe in four assorted patterns: the multicolour drip pattern, big blobs, splat pattern or wobbly stripes. Or maybe collect the plates or bowls one at a time and mix and match at random. Or give them to mates for Christmas. Who knows?

One thing is for sure: I’m really looking forward to sending 90% of my china to the charity shop or the skip.  (I’ve been buying odd china in antique shops for years and have loved having a non-matching collection of all the great names: Wedgewood, Spode, Royal Doulton etc. But the truth is the dishwasher has done for most of them, washing the lovely old patterns to a uniform grey. Pure Prue is made of sterner stuff and its vibrant look-at-me colours will, I’m promised, survive the dishwasher.