Hannah McAndrew was prompted by the racist attacks received by football players during this year’s Euro 2020 final.
She created a unique 48cm diameter slipware charger and donated it to a prize draw for FareShare, the charity championed by England International Marcus Rashford.
Although not a football fan, the Castle Douglas artist was taken by the conduct of the English team in the tournament and said: “They have taken a very clear and united stand against racism both on and off the field. From what I can see, football teams have huge influence with their supporters, so using their privileged position to send out this powerful message of tolerance and inclusion to fans of all ages can only be a good thing.”
Her work features the well known Three Lions of England, purposefully done in black. They are combined with influences derived from the immense and intricate chargers by Thomas Toft in the late 17th century. It was made with a mixture of slip trailing and paper resist techniques and has a rich honey glaze which gives the slip colours a deep warmth and vibrancy. The rim has been divided into 13 sections, each filled with slip trailed cross hatched lines. The sections represent the 13 countries other than England that members of the Euro 2020 England squad could have played for.
Hannah has been a potter for over 20 years and has built up an international reputation for making highly decorated pots within this genre. She was recently accepted as a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association.
Slipware is her passion and obsession and she loves to decorate pots and spends many hours covering surfaces in intricate patterns and imagery. Hannah makes large chargers regularly; she adores the wide surface and the potential that has for holding decoration. This is the only one of this design, though it could have been sold many times over when exhibited it at a large pottery festival recently and when it was first shown on the internet. Hannah wanted to hold it back to try to do something bigger with it.
The title of the piece, ‘This is England’ is borrowed from the poignant dialogue performance by Stormzy, Dave, and Ian Wright during the TV coverage of Euro 2020. In particular the lines ‘the past can’t hurt us. The future can inspire us. This is England, modern England’.
The charger featured in a prize draw on Crowdfunder.co.uk last month and raised £8800 for charity.
