In conversation with Hanna Salomonsson

“My process is based on relinquishing control, and I see my pieces as an ongoing dialogue between me, the kiln and my materials.”

 - Hanna Salomonsson 

Hanna Salomonsson. Portrait credit: Rebecca Westcott. 

Hanna Salomonsson is a London based Swedish ceramic artist. Following a career in landscape  architecture, she re-trained in ceramics in 2018. She also holds a BA in Art History, and this combined with  her landscape grounding provides a unique vantage point for her ceramic practice. Hanna’s work is inspired  by folklore, and the way in which traditional storytelling has been translated into modern mythology is a  recurring theme in her pieces. She is also interested in the way in which our sense of identity is anchored in  our childhood landscapes, and echoes of the Swedish woodlands can be often be distinguished in her  pieces.  

What ideas or questions are at the core of the work you’re showing at London Craft Week  this year?

I grew up in Småland, an inland region in southern Sweden, which shaped my experiences and ways of relating to the natural world. However, it also meant cultivating a life long yearning for the sea. Much of my childhood summers were spent in coastal areas in Sweden and  Denmark, and over time these days by the sea have taken on a dreamlike quality. The sea is a potent image that weaves through my personal narrative, representing both escape and the pull of memory. These images formed the starting point for my new body of sculptural vessels for London  Craft Week 2025. The vessels aim to capture the sea as metaphor for fluidity, change and the  complexities of childhood memories.  

You’re showing in Craft in Evolution at gallery@oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf, as part of London  Craft Week — what does that phrase mean to you? Is craft evolving, or are we just catching  up?

Personally, I feel that working within the craft sector provides huge potential for freedom and  evolution, and currently this is largely driven by new technologies and materials. Many ceramicists are creating fascinating work which would have been unthinkable a few decades ago using 3D  printing technology, and in my own work I combine more modern features (such as epoxy materials)  with clay to challenge the linearity of the ceramic process. Lately Chat GPT has become an indispensable tool for my development, and I use it to research background material, expand my thinking process behind design concepts and to pinpoint and refine ideas. 

When you first began shaping clay, did you imagine it would become a language for exploring  such layered ideas?

When I first started working in clay, I saw it more as a meditative opportunity that could result in some functional pieces for my home. However, the material immediately spoke to me in ways I hadn’t expected, and I soon began to obsessively read up on the history of  ceramics and the sector’s rapid development during the 20th century. This made me understand  the potential of the material and the sculptural vessel as a metaphorical starting point.

Run Deep, Run Wild 2025 by Hanna Salomonsson

Clay is notoriously unforgiving. How do you navigate failure in your studio, and do the  mistakes you make ever inform or challenge your process?

I only feel that clay is unforgiving if you aim to completely control outcomes. My process is based on relinquishing control, and I see my pieces as an ongoing dialogue between me, the kiln and my materials. Serendipity has been intentionally designed into my work. For example, the marbled patterns on my vessels are created  at random, and I only discover them as I start carving into the clay. All my glazes are extremely temperamental, and there are always surprises when I open the kiln, which I very much enjoy. What others may regard as flaws or mistakes I see as invitation to continue engaging with the work. To me, a crawled glaze offers an opportunity to explore new glaze patterns, an unexpected crack  inspires me to sculpt additional organic details, and a kiln explosion can create fascinating texture tools or sections to build into new pieces.  

What’s the most unexpected place a new piece has ever begun — a dream, a sentence, a  walk, a mistake?

A combination of a kiln disaster and my daily walk to the studio! One of my  studio colleagues accidentally dropped something onto one of my largest unfired pieces while loading a bisque kiln, which resulted in a huge chunk breaking off. On my walk to the studio that  morning I had been looking at the way in which plants gradually make their way through cracks in asphalt surfaces, and the damage to the carved dry vessel inspired me to experiment with re-building and re-organising the piece using paper clay slip and sculpted floral details. Up until that  point my carved work and floral sculptures had been separate, but this inspired me to combine the two which took my work in a whole new, more inspiring, direction.  

If we could eavesdrop on your studio while you work, what would we hear — silence, music,  muttering, something stranger? Podcasts, always! They’d normally be in Swedish or Norwegian though. 

What emotions or thoughts do you hope to provoke in your audience through your work?

My pieces normally have titles based on my own associations and thoughts behind the work. Often these are based on stories, memories, songs or poetry. In order to distill my concepts into words, I  keep returning to the writings of Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, whose descriptions of the  Scandinavian landscape and experiences are unparalleled. However, the titles for my vessels are usually intentionally vague, since I hope that my pieces will inspire the audience to reach into themselves and explore their own associations and the memories that the work may awaken. 

Drifting, 2025 by Hanna Salomonsson.

The [Quick] #FLODown:  

Best life advice?

Since I’m a natural procrastinator, it would have to be Mark Twain’s classic about eating your frog first thing in the morning! I tell myself this on an almost daily basis. 

Last song you listened to?

Sisyphus by Andrew Bird 

Last book you read?

The Serious Game by Hjalmar Söderberg. I re-read this at least every two years.  

Can’t live without...?

My AirPods. And coffee.  

Hanna is showing her work at Contemporary Applied Arts ‘Craft in Evolution’ exhibition at gallery@oxo, Oxo Tower Wharf  during London Craft Week 2025 (13-18 May 2025).

Website: oknyttceramics.com 

Instagram: @oknytt_cerarmics 

LinkedIn: oknyttceramics