Sian Leeper

Sian was born in Padbury, Buckinghamshire in 1970, the second of four sisters.  Memories of a happy time growing up in Yeovil, a small town in Somerset, still linger. Even during in her early school days, Sian showed a strong interest in art and design, and after secondary school, she went on to attend Yeovil College, where she studied an Art Foundation course for two years. After successfully passing through, she moved on to the University of Brighton on the English South coast. Here Sian studied for a degree in 3-D Design, specialising in silversmithing and ceramics. After three years she graduated with BA (Hons) in 1988. During her time at university she learned many of the skills that were to later stand her in good stead during her future career. Put simply, Sian developed a great love for both design and jewellery manufacture.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Sian was eventually torn between pursuing a career in jewelry or ceramic design. As occasionally happens, fate intervened and gave her a gentle nudge in the right direction. She read a Moorcroft advertisement calling for talented artists who could both paint and draw. Sian stayed for more than a year at Moorcroft, learning the intricate art of tubelining and painting. However, the pull of her childhood roots became too strong, and at the end of the year she left and returned home to Somerset.

After a cramped interlude with a small Somerset ceramic company, Sian took a great leap of faith and proclaimed herself to be a freelance designer, something her employers at the time were not pleased to hear. Soon she was decorating her own ceramics and selling them in local galleries. Her local success saw some of her designs filter into a wider circle of galleries throughout the United Kingdom. Eventually they crossed The Pond to the United States. Over the next three years Sian spent much time travelling back and forth to the States, gathering material and inspiration for design ideas. Indeed, she spent so much of her time in America that she calls herself, with considerable justification, a huge fan of all things American.  Today, Sian still makes time for at least one or two trips across the Atlantic each year to what she sees as her adopted second home.

With the new millennium approaching, Sian decided that she had spent enough time ‘going it alone’ and decided to contact Moorcroft, to see if she could take up where she had left off. After a lengthy meeting with Hugh Edwards, she once again took her seat in the Moorcroft decorating room.  Only a few months later, her Moorcroft decorating techniques returned, at which point she was appointed to the coveted Design Studio and became a full-time designer.

Sian’s first catalogue design, the limited edition Pride of Lions, appeared in 2000. The design just managed to slip into Moorcroft’s pottery portfolio before the catalogue went to press. In the same year, Sian was also represented in Moorcroft Enamels’ catalogue with her wintry Polar Bear Collection and tropical Jungle Collection. The latter encompassed a variety of jungle animals including leopards, tree frogs and parakeets. By this time Sian had established herself as a designer with an intuitive love for animals as a result of which she soon built up a following among Moorcroft collectors who shared her fascination and understanding of wild creatures.

Throughout 2001 Sian worked on a number of design themes.  The arrival of the limited edition Tamarin came as no surprise, but her Cleopatra range was altogether different.  Cleopatra was a departure from Sian’s customary style in that it was a structured design featuring a stylised Trillium flower.  Cleopatra range encompassed no less than nine shapes, and its popularity ensured its continuation into the 2002 catalogue.

Champerico, the Guatemalan slipper orchid, and Tembusu, the Malaysian flowering tree, are illustrations of Sian’s developing passion for exotic flora, whilst South Pacific is the result of an opportunity to use a palette of vibrant, strong marine colours. Sian confided in Collectors’ Club Secretary, Elise Adams recently, that her favourite part of this highly complex design is the small sea crab that lies at the foot of the vase. Elise meanwhile, fell in love with the myriad of brightly coloured tubelined bubbles that are dotted all over the surface of the vase.

Ranthambhore is both the name of this Moorcroft limited edition vase and a national park and tiger conservation area in Rajastan in India. The park is littered with the ruins of an 11^th century fort, part of which is depicted on the vase. Here the protected tigers roam freely, often bathing in the water to cool off from the intense midday sun. However, the design that holds the deepest meaning for Sian, is Sophie.  She named the design in honour of her six month old baby niece, Sophie, who is the first in the next generation of her family. Perhaps, baby Sophie will inherit her aunt’s artistic talent and continue the Moorcroft tradition of art pottery in the years to come?