Eva Brandt

Playing with elemental forces

• Eva works with stoneware and porcelain clays
• Nature is a huge source of inspiration to her
• Her works are rough and refined at the same time

Eva Brandt’s studio is a meditative sanctuary where she translates her inner experiences and inspirations into form, colour, structure, and pattern. “I coil big stoneware pots, and hand throw smaller items that are mostly for everyday use,” she says, “all with an individual expression: subdued earth colours, sensuous to touch, and with a sense of life or presence. It is like being a creator, playing with elemental forces.” Bornholm, the Danish island where she lives in the middle of the Baltic Sea, influences much of her work. “I am very much inspired by the nature around me. Worn and weathered surfaces, all kinds of powerful forms, water, plants, layered slopes at sea, rocks, and subtle atmospheres in the woods, by a stream…”

Interview

©Jesper Westley

©Jesper Westley

What techniques do you master?

I hand throw using a good old-fashioned kickwheel. I aslo do a lot of coiling as well, originally a Native American technique that I learned in New Mexico and transformed into my own technique. I really love the irregularities in the form and surface when it is coiled.

How important is experimentation?

Very. I have been experimenting a lot with surfaces, textures, raw materials, and the difficult task to give ‘life’ and interest to materials fired in an electric kiln. I usually scrape the surface, because it is more inspiring for me to work with scratches and holes in the rough clay.

What do you love most about your craft?

I love the materials and the transformation of them in the process, I love using my hands and imagination, I enjoy producing something from the beginning to the end out of ‘mud’. Finally, I love the freedom of expression.

Is it a long creative process?

Even when it comes to a small bowl or cup, I am not just producing a cup: there are at least 19 work processes from a bag of clay until one of my cups is ready in the shop. Not counting mixing and stirring of glazes and slips.

Eva Brandt is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1982

Works

©Anders Beier

©Eva Brandt

©Anders Beier

©Anders Beier

©Torben Villumsen

Where