‘Seedpod’ large serving bowl. Hand-thrown stoneware, black slip, wax resist and oatmeal glaze.
Clare de Lune Ceramics
My work with porcelain and stoneware celebrates the tactile experiences of our everyday lives through simple and elegant vessels for food and flowers.
Inspiration comes in many forms but is always sensory: Taiwanese tea ceremony, autumn seedpods, and indigo seeping through fabric are my current obsessions.
Having worked in architecture for two decades, I’m especially drawn to creating pared-back forms whose quiet presence is in some way energised by a contrasting texture, or an unexpected movement.
Working on the potter’s wheel is a challenge I adore — an adventure in seeing as well as making. Every day the continual push and pull of embracing and letting go ideas. So that each pot has a story to tell and, most important of all, each pot brings you fully into the present moment of tasting, touching, sharing, and seeing.
Below is a small selection of recent work. If you’re interested in a particular piece, or would like to sign up for my newsletter contact me via email, or DM on instagram @claredeluneceramics.
Landlines
A collection of white stoneware bowls, teabowls, jugs and plates. The idea for the pencil lines came as I was thinking about Paul Klee’s idea of “taking a line for a walk”. Finished with a transparent glaze and fired in an electric kiln, this collection elevates the everyday experience of eating, drinking and sharing food with loved ones.
Do Nothing
While working in Taiwan I met three wonderful sisters whose family name is “Wu” which means “Do Nothing”. Each had trained in a Taiwanese art: floral design, tea ceremony and traditional music. I was struggling with some big decisions at that time and was grateful for their calm wisdom, and the serenity I felt during tea ceremony. This collection of teabowls, teapots and flower vases is dedicated to the Wu Sisters, and to the idea of letting go, acceptance and recognising we are but a tiny speck in the universe.
Seedpod
Decorating pots is a world unto itself – and also a philosophical approach I haven’t quite got behind. My concession to decoration is to play with resist - masking areas of the form before glazing so that some of the vessel remains bare. This led to beautiful echoes of seedpod patterns, and thus a collection was born.
Explorations
A few of my current experiments, ideas to develop further, and exciting work-in-progress…