Rob Ryan

Ryantown Staffordshire Dogs

We are currently in the early stages of sculpting our very own pair of Ryantown Staffordshire Dogs from scratch!

We previously bought ready made blank pairs of cats and dogs from a mould maker in Staffordshire who supplied us with pairs made from existing moulds. Sadly our mould maker retired last year and it has proved difficult to find another who can access existing moulds. We have decided to use this opportunity to create our own shape so Rob would have his own completely original shape to continue making our ceramic editions from.

Sarah has been working to create a brand new and completely unique pair of dogs by hand. Here you can see the beginning stages of shaping the dogs from a block of clay. Sarah has created a basic shape taking direction from Rob who wanted a really smooth shape whilst taking elements from existing Staffordshire dogs – this new shape will be ideal for Rob to decorate!

It is a very lengthy process involving a lot of re-working and molding with the clay. We need to be completely happy with them before we pass them onto our new mould maker in Staffordshire to make the block mould (this is an original casting taken from these clay sculptures), from this our new mould maker will create blank pairs for Rob to decorate and edition.

We wanted to create a larger pair of dogs this time and have allowed for slight shrinkage which is part of the process.

Rob has been working closely with Sarah, showing her how he would like the dogs to look.

The dogs are really beginning to take shape now – its just the faces and ears to finish! I am very excited to be showing you these images of the the dogs at this stage, I will be documenting their progress.

Louise Renforth
Studio Assistant