Jessica Hans makes beautifully misshapen vases

There’s something very fun and raw about Jessica Hans’ vases and her approach to ceramics in general. Based in Philadelphia, she’s had a longstanding interest in foraging and raw materials since university; this has carried over into her ceramics work, which in the past has seen her driving to clay sites, digging her materials out of the ground and then firing them in their original state to see what would happen.

With this in mind, it’s best to approach Jessica’s vases with an understanding that this is about using materials in their natural state, rather than the kind of ceramics where every curve is perfectly formed and there’s not a deformed nodule in sight.

I love the free-form shape of these vases and the beautiful way she’s presented them with clean and cool photography. It makes them more than just decorative objects and elevates them into artefacts adorned with greenery. The sporadic patterns and colours add to the inconstancies in shape wonderfully and it’s the uniqueness of each piece that’s so appealing. This is ceramics on Jessica’s terms and I am totally behind the irregularity, unevenness and misshapen beauty of it all.