Like most women, I believe my home is the most important place on earth. It's a sanctuary, an extension of your personality, a living autobiography of all the places you have been, the things you've seen and objects you have collected on the way, it's a place to invite friends round for lazy afternoons and somewhere to snuggle up in the winter, hiding from the elements.

When I'm creating my products, I like to tell stories and spark imaginations. An illustration is a frozen snap shot of a moment in time, whether it's something real I have seen, or something I just think would be amusing to witness. I create these snapshots to inspire your own story telling, what led up to this point? Why are a load of mice dragging a massive jelly around behind them? Where are they going with it? What's going to happen afterwards? Do mice even eat jelly?

But the story telling doesn't end at the illustration, each product has it's own story. Take my soft furnishings for example, I source all my fabric from second hand shops, antique shops, remnants places and charity shops so before I even begin to stitch a story using my illustration, there is already an existing story contained within the fabrics I select.
As for my china... well... I can tell you now it took me nearly 4 months to find suppliers that ticked all my boxes. I wanted china that:
- supported local potteries in Stoke on Trent
- was of a high quality
- had quirky shapes
- was the same shade of white
- was unmarked so I can place my own 'mellor ware' stamp beneath each piece

and as if that wasn't hard enough, I then had to find a kiln owner locally who would let me rent time with their kiln to get everything fired (each firing takes 24 hours from start to finish).
But thankfully, everything is in place now and I have my very own A-team of two family businesses in stoke on trent supplying my china, and a lovely paint your own pottery business in Formby who let me use their kiln.

I began drawing illustrations during the time I was completing my degree. That's right folks, Lianne Mellor has a BA hons in Architecture! I used to add illustrations to my building projects to bring the spaces to life, then during the summer I would create illustrations on their own to sell in local art markets. When I graduated in July 2009 I realised that my passion really lay with my illustrations, but I wanted to create more of a physical product. Almost 12 months on I now have Mellor Ware. My range of home wares designed to add quirk, originality and a few giggles to the everyday while not costing the earth.