Carnival
Bright bands of colour, painted freehand. The range Reckless Designs is best known for — mugs, jugs, teapots and tea caddies.
Coleford, Forest of Dean
The kiln room still holds yesterday’s heat, there is clay under a thumbnail, and the shop is quiet — the way it is every morning before the door opens.
The maker
Smart ceramics, made by one pair of hands since 1991
Reckless Designs was established in 1991 — “makers of smart ceramics for people who demand superior pots at sensible prices.” Every shape began here, thrown or sculpted by hand and then turned into a plaster mould. From those moulds an experienced potter can slip-cast a hundred pieces and more in a day, and every one is then painted by hand in underglaze colour, oxide and onglaze lustre.
Thirty years on, that means a set of established ranges, a mould library that would take years to build from scratch, and a maker who still knows every step.
1991
the year Reckless Designs was established, in the Royal Forest of Dean
The work
A handful of ranges, all hand-painted
Hand-painted in underglaze colour, oxide and onglaze lustre. Bright, freehand, made to be used every day.
Reckless Rosie
Hand-painted roses on a plain ground. The fullest range in the catalogue: plates, bowls, jugs, teapots, cups and saucers, and vases.
Black and White
Brush and glaze only, no colour. Plates, bowls and serving pieces.
Splash
Poured and flicked colour, so every piece comes out different. Made in yellow, orange, lime and pale blue.
Abstract
One strong colour per piece, in blocks and bands — blue, green, purple, red or yellow. Dinner plates, side plates and butter dishes.
Commissions & one-offs
Made to a brief: bespoke sets, larger vessels, and pieces for weddings, restaurants and collectors.
The proof
Orders come in direct from customers across the country, every week, and have done for years.
More than thirty years of trade: an online shop with steady order flow, a network of galleries and craft shops, and wholesale accounts that reorder. Some accounts are happy to be named; others prefer to stay private.
- Galleries and craft shops A network of stockists carrying the ranges, several of them for ten years or more.
- Restaurant and hospitality accounts Bespoke plates and sets made for specific rooms, reordered as service wears them. Named on request; kept private where the client prefers.
- Weddings and private commissions One-off work that keeps the order book full between production runs.
The place
Shop, workshop and home, all at one address
The property runs from the street back and up: the shop, the working pottery behind it, a self-contained bed-sit, and the house above. All in use, all in the sale.
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The shop front
The face on the street — where customers walk in, where retail sales happen, and where the pottery meets the town. Trading as it stands.
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The workshop
Directly behind the shop — the working pottery. Wheels, wedging bench, glaze area, the mould library and kilns, laid out for one maker and ready to run from day one.
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The bed-sit
A self-contained room between the workshop and the house — useful now for a maker who stays late, or as a let, a studio, or space for an assistant.
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The house
The home above it all — where the current owner lives. A full house on top of a working business, so the commute is a flight of stairs.
What you would inherit
A business, not a blank page
You would not be starting a pottery. You would be taking over one that has run since 1991 — with customers who already order, moulds and ranges already developed, and a shop and website already trading.
The figures, order volumes and full detail are shared privately with serious enquirers.
- Customers and wholesale accounts that already reorder
- Thirty years of shapes, moulds and hand-painted ranges, already developed
- A working setup — wheels, kilns, glaze and decorating area — in daily use
- An online shop already taking orders
- The shop, the workshop and the house, in one sale
Your first months
You would not be left to work it out alone
The maker is not walking away on completion day. They will train the new owner in person — casting, painting, firing, and the customer side of the business — and stay on until the new owner has what they need.
It is what makes this workable for someone who is not yet a potter.
The invitation
If this is a life you recognise, let’s talk
No hard sell. Tell us a little about yourself and why this interests you, and we will arrange a conversation or a viewing from there.
Guide price on application.
Arrange a private conversationNo obligation. Every enquiry is read personally, in confidence.