Award-winning artist, Ashraf Hanna works with the vessel to explore relations between profile, line, and space. Using a process of handbuilding, and working with colour and texture, Hanna examines the juxtaposition of sharp lines and soft curves.
For Hanna, there isn’t a single source of inspiration. Alongside classical pottery shapes, the world around him – landscape, architecture, as well as the body provide a rich source of material.
“Recently, I have become more aware than ever of the importance of thinking through making, the making process itself informs development” Ashraf Hanna 2021.
The pinch pot – a form made from a ball of clay in the hand, hollowed out by the action of the thumb and fingers – is the starting point for many of his vessels. Larger works are developed using soft slabs and modelled as he builds them up. The works are fully refined when the clay reaches the leather hard stage. Surfaces are treated with coloured terra sigillata slip – a very fine liquid clay.