It all started in May 2006, when ceramicist & cocker spaniel owner Claire Pearson got fed up of her dog Bella's ears always ending up with bits of food on them after mealtimes. Bella had a spaniel bowl bought from a pet superstore but she is a pint size cocker and the shape just didn't work for her.

So Claire decided to try and use her skills as a trained potter to make Bella a bowl which worked and also looked nice. Two weeks later, Bella was presented with her first home-made spaniel bowl - slightly too small and a bit rough around the edges, but it worked as a prototype. So Claire had a second go and this time the bowl was the correct size and a far more satisfying shape.

Claire then made bowls for her two cats, and then offered a few fellow dog and cat owners the chance to have a personalised bowl - a few weeks later the orders just kept on coming and Chow Bella was born!

The business has grown very organically - it is still a very small affair, just one woman, a potter's wheel, a small kiln and lots of early mornings and late evenings fitting the bowl orders in around a 4-day-a-week office job and life with two bustly little cockers, two cats and a partner.

Claire has been throwing on a potter's wheel for around twelve years now and has a Higher Ed Diploma in Ceramics from London's City Lit. She has exhibited at the New Designers exhibition in London, New Ashgate Gallery in Farnham and has work in several galleries within the UK and Europe. The pet bowls have somewhat taken over from Claire's other ceramic work at the moment but you can see her work here.

Claire lives in London with her partner, two blue-roan cockers (Bella, who will be 4 in December '08, and her hooligan half-brother Zorro, aged two - collectively known as The Muppeteers!), and a rather demanding Burmese crossbreed cat named Taj Mahal. Taj is 11 and came to us at 6 months from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.

                                               Bella (left) and Zorro in Greenwich Park, London

Taj enjoying a quiet moment

   Ziggy, sadly no longer with us but she made

several appearances on the Chow Bella site

in her time - what a glamourpuss!