Bowls, Bottles and Vases by Victoria Morris
Often I stumble across inspiration randomly whilst searching for individuals that we could represent in the shop. Before we opened I would have to go looking for, or sometimes pushing, a specific subject, which didn’t always lead to an interesting article or post. Saying that, now I often get led to things via contacts and individuals who’re in the same environment as us. Today I was lucky enough to get pointed in the direction of one individual that I felt an instant connection with, her style is exactly what we like and her influences match ours as well.
Victoria Morris is a Californian potter who’s been making since the age of sixteen. Her works are mainly inspired by Scandinavian and Japanese aesthetics, much like what we talk about here, and her forms often have subtle and random imperfections which you could say fall under the Japanese world view or aesthetic known as ‘Wabi-sabi’. One thing that’s been inspiring me lately is the earth tones found in pottery and ceramics, a good example of this is Mushimegane Books in the shop, where the pieces almost look like they’re historic and could fall in the category of rustic, as if they take on the appearance of rock or stone. Which is ironic I guess, considering they’re made out of clay and other natural material. But you’ll definitely get what I mean here when viewing these objects by Victoria, very nice to see such diversity in the forms and shapes, each one looks independent from each other and extremely unique.
So I’ve picked out some of my favourites from her portfolio page that hopefully offers an insight in to her style and skill. One pot that I was drawn to in-particular, or a set of pots should I say, are the bottles seen above, they look stunning with their widening frame and small opening/stem on top. The textures are also fantastic and remind me of some elements that I’ve seen recently in certain builds by famous architects, not hiding any scars and keeping everything in view. Although this may be the case, I’m positive it’s not easy to get this sort of simplicity just right, I’ve tried it many times myself in the studio near me and it never comes out like this. It takes extreme talent and dedication. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on Victoria’s page over the next year to see what other works she comes up with, if they are anything like this they’re sure to be great.