Meet the Artists: Q&A with Liv & Dom

Ceramicists, designers and identical twins Liv and Dom Cave-Sutherland are best known for their playful, folk-inspired nude illustrations and decorative homewares, depicting the female form in a fun and celebratory way.

We've been long-time admirers of their work and so when it came to planning our next collaboration, due to launch in the month of both Mother's Day and International Women's Day, we knew exactly who to ask.

The Sbri x Liv & Dom collection launches on Tuesday 12th March 2024, with a limited run of 250 personalised purses and keyrings. Ahead of the launch we spoke to the duo about the inspiration behind this exclusive design, and chatted about sisterhood, the sea and their own moments of Sbri.

How would you describe your work to someone who isn't already familiar with what you do?

The focus of our artistic practice is ceramics, but we also paint and design, sometimes collaboratively as we are here! Our ceramic work is highly decorative, inspired by antiques, traditional craft, folk art, and our life in rural Sussex. We often depict the nude form in our work, it's what we initially became known for. We strive to make timeless and well crafted statement pieces for the home.

What's it like working in collaboration with one another? Do you think sisterhood has an influence on your style?

Collaboration is second nature to us. We've made art together since we were old enough to hold paint brushes, creating unwanted murals on our mum's walls... Our creative energy has always been quite feminine and I suppose some of that is down to us always working together as sisters! Our close relationship as sisters has created a perfect environment for the seamless blending of our artistic styles into one!

Before you set up your studio in Lewes you both studied at Arts University Bournemouth, just a stone's throw from our workshop in Ringwood. Do you enjoy living and working near the coast?

We've always lived within an hours drive of the coast and it was a major selling point of going to that university, a sandy beach in England is so rare! However, freezing, murky English coastal waters don't appeal to us for the majority of the year. This could be due to us not being strong swimmers and hating being wet and cold (maybe it's our Jamaican blood?). There's something reassuring about knowing that the sea is not far away, and it's worth being nearby just for those rare sunny days where the sea sparkles.

Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the piece you've designed for us, particularly the significance of the apple motif?

The apple has a lot of mythic associations; Norse, Greek and Chinese mythology all have their own apple symbolism and whether that be beauty, youth, wisdom etc it is nearly always in relation to the female, or goddesses. As we are launching around International Women's Day we thought that this timeless and beautiful symbol of 'womanhood' would be perfect. This connection also led us to create a bold, folk inspired design.

You're best known for creating gorgeous ceramic pieces for your own shop  — how did designing for our leather products differ from your usual process?

The way the purses lock together like a little puzzle on the front made us want to work with that interesting feature - it's not something we've ever done before. Our approach to ceramics is very fast and immediate, we don't plan much and just go for it, but this required more careful planning.

Something that was similar was the natural background colours, we often don't completely cover our clays with glaze to let the earthy clay tones be the base of our designs, we knew we wanted to utilise the lovely leather tones in the same way for this.

Our brand name, Sbri, is a Welsh word meaning 'fun' and we love to celebrate the small moments of joy that add a little *extra* to the everyday. What little things bring you joy?

• Getting a glimpse of the South Downs hills that are just about visible from the top floor of our house
• Drinking tea from our collection of mugs, usually picked up for cheap in charity shops!
• Kissing our sweet cat Persie on her tiny head.
• Finding a second hand bargain, when you're not actively looking.
• Amusing, unexpected messages from friends.
• Coming across a new curiosity we've not yet spotted in the town we live in.

Find more from Liv & Dom at livanddom.com or @livanddom on Instagram, and shop the exclusive Sbri x Liv & Dom collection here.