Creative Collaboration

Gerada/Hildebrand is a collaboration between two ceramic artists; Nina Gerada and Caz Hildebrand. Both Caz and Nina have experience in various design fields, including architecture, urban design, graphic design and creative direction. Their ceramic sculptures explore geometry and pattern and work at many scales.

In 2020, they began a collaboration with us. This has included research into various aspects of our process – from the clay itself to the moulds, the brick-making process, firing and the creative potential of the bricks!

“We are delighted by the interest that our brickworks inspires.” said Nikki Lax, Director, “The story of our natural product began over 400 millennia ago and has continued with clay extraction and brickmaking on this site for 160 years and counting!”

Together with urban designers Context Office, Gerada/Hildebrand have produced maps of the local area that show the way our clay was formed 400,000 years ago. They have been working with David Horne, a micropaleontologist from Queen Mary University of London and the Natural History Museum, to understand the amazing microscopic fossils found in the clay and have spent time on residencies at our brickworks during which they experimented with sculptures made from our ‘specials’.

Watch this space to see how this project develops!