Organic and ornamental, spontaneous and stylized, Vanessa Hogge’s decorative wallflowers bring a unique textural and visual dimension to any wall or table. Working predominantly in porcelain, Vanessa, one of the best European master artisans, creates her unique and exclusive flower heads and vessels in her studio focused on ceramic art in Cockpit Arts Holborn.

Years of expertise as a ceramicist allowed her to master her techniques, she has an instinctive, intuitive approach to each piece, meticulously sculpting every petal and anther by hand in such a manner that no two flowers are identical. The flowers, created in porcelain and black clay, are fired at high temperatures to create brittle, ossified shades of white and lava-like black.

Inspired by her passion for all botanical creatures, and influences as diverse as Frida Kahlo, Indian miniature paintings and Marianne North, Vanessa breathes life into her clay in the form of dahlias, chrysanthemums, daisies, hydrangeas and daphnes.

The infinite patterns and possibilities of flowers inspire Vanessa Hogge to create rich, decorative “icings” and extraordinary frilled porcelain ceramic forms. The process mesmerizes her. She is addicted to the rhythm of repetitive detailed movements and how it can transform surfaces.

Vanessa tears, pinches, rolls and cuts the clay to form simple petals that blossom and grow into complex symmetrical forms. Each flower is hand formed, no molds are used, so every piece is truly unique. What Vanessa loves about porcelain is not its translucency or fragility, but its beauty when used in thicker sections to portray the most delicate of forms. The way porcelain is altered in the making and firing process from a sticky and stubborn “plasticine” into the toughest, most stiff form in beautiful shades of stony white inspired Vanessa to push the limits of this material.

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