Upon The Clouds Handmade in Leigh-on-Sea Buy a set: £95

Hand-cast, hand-painted

Three flying ducks.Handmade in Essex.

Your nan had a set. So did half the country. These are made one at a time in a workshop in Leigh-on-Sea. Cast and painted by hand, so no two sets are quite alike.

£95a set of three· Free UK delivery·Ready to hang
Buy a set See the colours
Two sets of handmade flying ducks hung on a brick wall, a large set above a smaller set

A large set and a small set on the same wall.

Set of three handmade flying ducks in emerald green and orange, climbing a white wall

The classic mallard colouring: emerald head, chestnut breast.

The Mallard Set

Three ducks, large to small

£95

Each set is cast and hand-painted to order in Leigh-on-Sea. Because they're painted by hand, the greens and browns shift a little from set to set. That's the point of buying one made by a person.

  • Cast in resin, then hand-painted: base coats first, colours blended in after
  • Hand-painted mallard colouring: teal head, white collar, chestnut breast
  • Other colourways made to order, see below
  • Fixings and a hanging guide in the box
  • Sent in plastic-free, recycled packaging
  • Free tracked UK delivery

Made to order by one person, so sets go out in the order they're placed.

Colourways

Not everyone wants a mallard

The shape stays the same. The paint doesn't. Every set is painted by hand, so the colours can follow the room they're going into rather than the other way round.

Three flying ducks painted in emerald green and orange

Emerald mallard

The traditional colouring, turned up a little brighter than the originals.

Three flying ducks painted in soft teal, apricot and cream

Teal and apricot

Softer and chalkier. Works in a room where the bright set would shout.

A single flying duck painted in naturalistic brown, grey and blue

Naturalistic

Painted from life, in brown, grey and the blue wing flash a real mallard has.

Three pink and gold ducks mounted in a pink box frame against a painted lilac sky with small hot air balloons

Framed piece: ducks and balloons mounted over a painted sky.

Framed pieces

The ducks, put in a sky

Some of them don't go straight on the wall. Retha mounts the ducks in a box frame over a painted sky, with clouds or hot air balloons around them, and paints the birds to match the light in the picture.

Each framed piece is a one-off. When one sells, that exact one is gone.

Ask about framed pieces
Four bronze and gold ducks mounted in a wooden box frame against a blue sky with matching clouds

Blue sky, four birds

Bronze and gold birds with matching clouds, in a light oak frame.

Three brightly painted ducks flying across a painted sunset sky

Sunset

Green and orange birds against a painted dusk.

Large and small sets of flying ducks hung together on a brick wall

Two sizes together

A large set with a small set below it, so the flock reads as one thing.

Hello, I'm Retha

Welcome to my workshop in Leigh-on-Sea, where every duck is made and painted by hand.

I make the moulds, cast every bird and paint each one here. No two sets leave the same, which is the part I like most.

Read my story
Retha, the maker behind Upon The Clouds, in Leigh-on-Sea

Why these ones

Made by one person, not a factory

Most of the flying ducks you can buy today are made overseas in batches of hundreds. These aren't. Retha makes them herself in Leigh-on-Sea. She makes the moulds, pours them, trims and sands every edge by hand, then paints each bird, base coats first and the colours blended in after.

It means she can only make so many. It also means the set on your wall was handled from start to finish by the person who made it.

Three duck moulds on a workbench in the workshop

Her own moulds, on the bench in Leigh-on-Sea.

A short history

You already know these ducks

Three ducks climbing a chimney breast, biggest to smallest. They were in front rooms and up staircases all over Britain from the 1950s through the 1970s, and after Hilda Ogden hung a set in Coronation Street, they became shorthand for a whole way of decorating a house.

Then taste turned, and for about twenty years they were a punchline. Now they're back on walls in Leigh-on-Sea and Hackney and Glasgow, hung by people who think they're funny and lovely at the same time. Both things are true.

These are made in that tradition, in the same climbing formation and the same mallard colours, by someone making them by hand today.

Where they go

Up a staircase, along a hallway, above a fireplace, over a bed. The classic hang is a rising diagonal, biggest bird lowest, each one a little higher and further along.

Hanging them

Fixings and a one-page guide with the spacings on it come in every box, so you don't have to work it out with a pencil and a spirit level.

Getting them to you

These travel better than the old ceramic sets ever did, but couriers are still couriers, so every set is packed by hand in recycled, plastic-free materials. If anything arrives broken, send a photo and a replacement goes out.

Questions

Before you buy

Are these vintage?

No. They're new, made by hand in Essex in the traditional style. Vintage sets turn up on eBay, usually chipped and often with a bird missing from the middle.

Is every set identical?

No. They're painted by hand, so the colours vary slightly between sets. Yours will be a little different from the photo.

Can I get them in a different colour?

Yes. The mallard set is the classic, and the birds have also been painted in teal and apricot, pink and gold, bronze, and a naturalistic brown. Email info@upontheclouds.co.uk with the colours in your room and Retha will tell you what she can do.

How do I hang them?

Fixings and a spacing guide come in the box. Plasterboard, plaster or brick are all fine.

Do you sell to shops?

Yes. Wholesale enquiries to info@upontheclouds.co.uk.