Sarah Bryan.
Artist Statement.
The natural world continues to inspire me when hand-building with clay. Similar to growth development in plants, when the stems and roots lengthen, I will start a piece with a seed of thought. These individual structures will then evolve and morph as they materialise over several weeks.
Time is taken to sit back and observe what each piece needs, understanding how much water or air is required to strengthen the clay, feeling how far I can push the molecular build-up. The final make stages flourish through surface pattern and glaze application.
This collection offers a range of ceramic tableware items and sculptural centrepieces to embody plant growth stages. As with all hand-built work, each piece is organic and individual in form, as nature designed it to be.
Root.
Def: part of a plant which attaches to a support, conveying nourishment via numerous branches and fibres.
Using a slip-trailed technique, the clay roots encapsulate the outer body of the ceramic structure, grounding the piece to its surface.
Bulb.
Def: a relatively large, usually subterranean, and often globular bud; the resting stage of certain seed plants.
Hand-built forms conceptualise bulb and seed structures, intending to represent the calming dormant stage of the plants’ growth.
Bloom.
Def: fleshy leaves emergent from the top of a bulb. to produce or yield flowers, to support abundant plant life.
Ceramic sculptures encapsulating the final flourishing, expressive forms celebrating growth and beauty.
About.
Sarah Bryan Design is a studio based in Berkhamsted, England, within the Chilterns natural landscape.
Founded in 2023, Sarah‘s studio produces textured functionalware and unique sculptures. Alongside botany, she has a continued fascination with portraiture and the depiction of emotion, which appear in the form of her wall-hung masks. Her work is generally monochromatic, with hints of sepia and muted tones, combined with a playfulness in texture.
Having originally earned an Interior Architecture Degree at a university in Cardiff, Wales, she pursued a successful career in the commercial interior design industry for 15 years. During this time, Sarah was searching for a medium that allowed her to physically create with her hands. Since 2015, Sarah has been developing her ceramic skills through evening and weekend courses, and in 2023, she took the leap to pursue ceramics as a full-time vocation.