Prizes and Awards

This page highlights the prizes and awards earned by members of the International Academy of Ceramics, celebrating excellence, innovation, and lasting contributions to the field of contemporary ceramics worldwide.	Due to the growing membership and the increasing number of prizes, this page focuses on awards won in the last five years.

Prizes and Award 2026

Gyeonggi Ceramics Biennale
“Squaring the Circle.” (2025), ceramic, stoneware and metal hardware. © Gyeonggi Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art (GMoCCA)
Eliza Au – GCB Excellence Prize Member page Squaring the Circle is a large-scale hanging ceramic installation, consisting of hundreds of individual ceramic pieces. This work reflects my research on ornamentation and architecture of sacred spaces, such as cathedrals, temples and mosques.	My intent is not to reference a specific religion, but to bring attention to the common composition of these spaces, which reflect a symmetrical, radial or grid layout. These layouts are commonly seen in other religious artifacts, such as Tibetan mandalas and Islamic tile patterns. By drawing attention to this aspect, I hope to convey that all cultures and peoples have used pattern and architecture to understand concepts of divinity.

“The Bust” (2025), stoneware, glazes. © Korea Ceramic Foundation (KOCEF)
Yuriy Musatov – GCB Excellence Prize Member page In my sculptural practice, I explore otherness as a form of presence beyond conventional human perception. This sculpture reinterprets the classical bust, removing its traditional portrait function. The absence of facial features and individual characteristics transforms the figure into a generalized image of existence.	The form remains recognizable as humanoid, yet resists identification as human. It becomes a vessel of otherness, questioning how we perceive and recognize identity. Rather than depicting a specific person, the sculpture captures a state of presence beyond individuality and time. Through ceramics, I explore the boundary between the human and the unknown, transforming the bust into an abstract model of existence.

6th Officine Saffi Awards
“iThwasa (The One Who is Blossoming)” (2024), glazed earthenware (hand-coiled), cow. Image courtesy of Fondazione Officine Saffi
Andile Dyalvane – Primo Premio Member page iThwasa (The One Who Is Blossoming) (2024) forms part of the collaborative iNtwaso series by Andile Dyalvane and Nkuthazo Alexis Dyalvane, which explores the spiritual journey of initiation towards becoming an ‘igqirha’ (traditional Xhosa healer). The vessel embodies a state of becoming: a threshold between ancestral inheritance and lived experience, where healing begins through listening, learning, and the transmission of knowledge across generations.	Its ceramic form is adorned with cow hair, leather, and grass, referencing ritual regalia worn during initiation and signalling an evolving relationship between body, spirit, and community. Rooted in Xhosa cosmology while resonating with universal experiences of transformation, iThwasa positions clay as a living repository of memory and care. Rather than treating belonging as a ﬁxed condition, the work understands it as something continually cultivated through ritual, kinship, and the shared inheritance of knowledge.

Ecdysis 6 (2024), porcelain and different ceramic glazes
Trude Westby Nordmark – Guldagergaard Residency Prize Member page Ecdysis 6 explores “forms of belonging” through the transformative capacities of porcelain. The title refers to ecdysis, the biological process of shedding an outer layer to enable growth, serving as a material metaphor for how forms evolve and reorganize. Here, belonging is not a social condition, but a state embedded in matter: a negotiation between surfaces, structures, and the forces acting upon them.	The sculpture utilizes a modular construction where each porcelain unit functions like a cell within a larger organism. Through repetition and rhythm, these modules form complex formations and layers of meaning. Porcelain’s unique responsiveness, its plasticity, fragility, and shrinkage during firing, determines how these units interact. Their points of contact become sites of transformation, echoing the moment an organism outgrows its skin.

Jingdezhen International Ceramic Art Biennale
“Cycus Llamelae” from The Seed Pod Collection (2024), porcelain. © Sylvain Deleu
Corrie Bain – Guozhong Emerging Artist Prize Member page My work explores the fragility and resilience of life, the urgency of the climate crisis, and the persistence of natural cycles despite human interference. It is a translation of biological systems into emotional and conceptual forms, bringing together sculptural ceramics, organic structures, and ideas surrounding ecology and human experience.	There is a deeper political undercurrent within my practice, which is becoming increasingly explicit as I connect the conceptual foundations of the Seed Pod Series with more figurative and socio-political themes, including climate change, migration and collective grief. Ultimately, each piece becomes a meditation on life, form and fragility.

“Breasts” (2025), porcelain, wood, rubber, thread, metal
Ilias Christopoulos – Guozhong Emerging Artist Prize Member page Breasts Matter as body. Porcelain as skin. In Breasts, materiality speaks – it becomes a vessel of memory, femininity, and vulnerability. Porcelain, cool to the touch yet radiant in light, transforms into skin that remembers, into a surface that carries traces of presence and absence.	The form of the breast, archetypal and familiar, rises from the material to express what language struggles to hold – loss, fear, and rebirth. Materiality here is not merely technique but experience: it is the touch that heals, the fracture that reveals, the transformation that gives meaning. Through porcelain, the work becomes a tribute to all women who have lived through breast cancer – those who fought, those who triumphed, and those who left behind light. The material, fragile yet eternal, becomes the medium through which life itself insists on being felt, seen, and remembered.

Hollowed-out divinity (2025), porcelain, stainless steel, optical axis, concrete
Du Zhehan – Guozhong Emerging Artist Prize Member page This work fuses ceramics with metal, breaking the fixed perception of cultural symbols. The “reconstruction” of tradition is both a tribute to history and its deconstruction and reconfiguration.	The hollowing, cracking and peeling effects produced by the two heterogeneous materials on the deity statues symbolize the energy and tension released by the slices of historical culture in the contemporary context.

Breaking the Impasse – Yang (破局-玚) (2026), porcelain and minerals
Wang Ronghui – Guozhong Emerging Artist Prize Member page Ceramic clay is one of the earliest materials through which human beings have connected with the world, embodying the origins of our sensory experiences, artistic practices, and material culture. In today’s digital age, technological progress increasingly distances us from the sensory knowledge and aesthetic values rooted in our relationship with nature.	Through an exploration of the fundamental language of ceramics, Breaking the Impasse seeks to challenge established conventions of form, material, and technique, reopening a space for a more direct and personal encounter between the human body and clay—one that precedes predefined norms and expectations.

“Min Nong – Grain Illusion” (2025), white pottery, porcelain, time-lapse video, wood planks, acrylic
Weier Qiu – Kaolin Prize Member page The MinNong series reinterprets the narrative of the classic poem Two Ballads of MinNong. Entitled Grain Illusion, this work takes inspiration from the line “Each grain comes from bitter toil”. Viewing grain through the perspective of labour, the artist reconsiders its dual nature, reflects on agricultural hardship, and explores the dialectic between the value of labour and futile effort.	The full rice-growing cycle of one farming season is translated into 19,017 individual ceramic test tiles, a number corresponding to the harvested grains. These elemental ceramic pieces echo the farmers’ basic yield. Paired with footage documenting the arduous, prolonged labour, the installation unfolds a meditation on repetitive and seemingly meaningless toil.

Hold the Line! (2026), 3D-printing, porcelain cast in plaster molds
Jørgen Frederik Scheel Haarstad – Kaolin Prize Member page I am an artist and musician. My artistic expression is particularly influenced by more than 25 years of working as a professional drummer. In my artistic practice, I explore and experiment with ceramics as an audiovisual material. I use ceramics to create sound objects and to produce sound in visual performances. I search for the uniqueness and sound potential of each individual ceramic object by manipulating the movement of the objects to produce sound.	Improvisation and experimentation guide this process. I want to end up in a place I could not see before I started. I want to surprise myself. In my work with clay, the driving force is the dynamic process that emerges through the interaction between the material and my treatment of it. I want the form to evolve along the way, freeing myself from a specific idea, trusting the process and seeking an experimental expression.

“Loop #18” (2025), glazed stoneware
Huang Jing – Dowstone Art Prize Member page ‘Loop’ is a series of works that indicate no beginning or end, but emphasize the winding path itself. Amid the dislocation and ambiguity of being neither here nor there, I anchor myself by tracing my past and drawing inspiration from my hometown Guilin’s landscape after a long departure.	‘Loop’ represents the landscape and mirrors my respect for my past, culture, and tradition. Its Chinese title, ‘回,’ means to circle, to return, and to turn around. This pictographic character represents the form of the work and symbolizes a return to the process itself, celebrating my identity, past, and culture.

27th Mino Chawan Competition
The Dancing Queen (2025), porcelain fired in Anagama
Teck Heng Alvin Tan – Gold Prize Member page	Porcelain has always been highly regarded and is a difficult clay type to handle, hence “Queen”. The fire in the anagama twisted the shape of the bowl as if it is dancing, hence “The Dancing Queen”.


Prizes and Award 2025

International Biennale of Artistic Ceramics of Aveiro
“Rainy day” (2024), stoneware, oxide-colored porcelain, glaze
Hanna Miadzvedzeva – First Prize Member page This sculpture is part of my larger series, Landscapes, in which I explore how environmental conditions affect our perception and physical experience of being immersed in nature.	In this work, I sought to evoke a grey, rainy day, when heavy clouds hang low over the earth and their weight seems almost tangible. To convey this sensation, I combined an inflated, cloud-like form with slender legs and a distinctive, loose surface structure developed through my own technique. The sculpture’s body is hand-built from stoneware clay, while its textured surface is created by applying successive layers of small droplets of slip made from the same clay.

“White Flowers Still Life” (2023), unglazed porcelain
Fernando Garcés – Second Prize Member page My work is rooted in the ceramic tradition, in the simplicity of its forms and in a deep understanding of materials and techniques. Working with wheel-thrown porcelain, I explore the expressive possibilities of these essential forms, seeking to transcend their functional origins and give them new artistic meanings.	In White Flowers Still Life, I reinterpret the pictorial tradition of still life through a sculptural composition. The interplay of volumes, light and shadow, together with subtle variations of white, creates a dialogue between the objects and the space around them. The unglazed porcelain reveals the natural qualities of the material, while traditional pottery techniques become new means of artistic expression. I am interested in the connection between tradition and contemporary art, as well as the ability of simple forms to create balance, silence and contemplation.

63rd Faenza Prize
“November” (2024), stoneware
Hanna Miadzvedzeva – Faenza Award Over 35 Member page “This is a sculpture from the larger Landscapes series, in which I explore how our sense of self changes in different spaces and under the influence of different natural factors. November landscape for me is associated with a state of complete defenselessness, when trees stand with bare branches in the wind, you want to shiver and wrap yourself in something warm and soft. This is the time to prepare for winter, find inner strength, and make plans for the future.”	The base of the sculpture is formed by hand from plastic stoneware clay. The surface structure is created by applying drops of slip from the same clay. One electric firing at 1250°C.

“Rovine” (2024), earthenware, porcelain, glass, metal
Marta PALMIERI – Chamber of Deputy Award Member page “Ruins’ emerges from silence, exploring the city as fragmented memory and archaeology of the future. Ceramic and glass structures, imprisoned in baked and then broken earthen shells, reveal forms where a new nature emerges among incrustations and material stratifications.	An apocalyptic archeology narrates abstract spaces, symbolising the deterioration of communication and the uncontrolled trasformation of reality that becomes a metaphor for loss and distance.

Ceramic Art Andenne 2025
“Floating Dream” (2025), painted porcelain
Velimir VUKICEVIC – Grand Prize Member page	I want to make an object that has a formula of its own and speak its own language, creating a dialogue that did not exist before.

Loewe Craft Prize 2025
“Sandcastle”, glazed stoneware
Anina Major – Finalist Member page

“StopStone/TOMEISHI” (2024), coloured stoneware
Agnes Husz – Finalist Member page Condensed into a single stone, this sculptural work touches on spiritual, ritual, and natural aspects of Japanese culture. Drawing from her experience with Chanoyu, or Japanese tea ceremonies, the artist harnesses rhythmic processes to bring the relationship between both the self and the outer world to the fore.	Hand-stretched slabs of clay are slapped onto a board, then compressed to form a large, striated cube; an expansion of the Japanese tradition of Tomeishi, which sees sacred ‘stop stones’ wrapped in twine to ward off malicious spirits. The final form stands as a plea for pause; a ‘stop sign’ for the chaos and violent conflicts that beset the modern era. The artist sees meditative action as a balm for the soul, using this ancient-looking messenger to nurture calm through self-acceptance in the here and now.

IX BICMA
“Air Turbulence” (2025), porcelain painted with engobes and transfer paper
Velimir Vukicevik – Grand Prix Member page


Prizes and Award 2024

13th International Ceramics Competition Mino, Japan
“The Kiln” (2021), clay, glaze, fragments of an electric kiln. Hand-building, 1280°C.
Ielizaveta PORTNOVA – Grand Prix Member page “This work is from my abstract zoomorphic series, which I started in 2018. In the works of this series I use both my previously made objects and objects of other authors. Sometimes I work from scraps of old works or from pieces of sculptures made specifically for the project In the work “Kiln” I used the fragments of my kiln. We made this kiln in 2002. Once, one piece exploded during firing and damaged the kiln. By this time, the kiln had completed more than 500 firings. Fragments of a kiln and heating elements were inlaid into this work.	The original object has its own character and energy. I use this data to develop the source material into the final image. My task is to visualize the history of transformation of the original object into an abstract zoomorphic figure.” (Ielizaveta Portnova) — Now I feel like this beast assembled from the fragments of the past. The past is valuable but painful. War deprives us of our human appearance. —

“Ruins from the future”
Marta PALMIERI – Special Judges’ Award Member page

2024 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale
“Loop #12” by Jing HUANG (USA/China, IAC member since 2023)
Jing HUANG – Silver Award Membre page ‘Loop’ is a series of works that indicate no beginning or end, but places an emphasis on the winding path itself. Amid the dislocation and ambiguity of being neither here nor there, I anchor myself by tracing my past and taking inspiration from the early memory of my hometown (Guilin)’s landscape after a long departure. ‘Loop’ is not only a representation of the actual landscape; it mirrors the feelings of respect and appreciation for my past, culture and tradition. It’s a process of seeking a deeper understanding of my identity and experience in the world.	Its Chinese title, ‘回,’ has several meanings in Chinese: to circle, to step back, to turn around, to return. This unique pictographic character not only represents the form of the work but also symbolizes the return to the process itself, celebrating my identity, past, and culture. (Jing HUANG)

5th Officine Saffi Award
“The Twilight Landscape” (2023) by Hanna Miadzvedzeva (Belarus, IAC member since 2021)
Hanna Miadzvedzeva – Residency Prize Gaya Ceramic Arts Center Member page This work is part of a larger series of works called “Landscapes” that I’ve been doing for the last couple of years. In the series, I portray my feelings about the places I visit – new cities and regions, natural places. I especially like observing new landscapes from a bird’s eye view, flying over them with an airplane, when forests and fields alternate with each other to create a unique textural pattern. Also a very important aspect of my perception of the surrounding area is light and the nature of its dispersion in space. Twilight is a very specific state, when in a fairly short period of time there is a transcendental transition from bright day to completely dark night.	I heard that this period of the evening is considered the most dangerous for drivers because of the so-called “twilight blindness”. Everything around us seems to be wrapped in a gray velvet – on the one hand it creates a soft, calming effect, but on the other hand there is a slight feeling of anxiety deep inside, because we are always suspicious of things that are hidden and not obvious. It is in such a state that even familiar places seem quite changed and begin to be perceived as different, unexplored and full of mystery. To convey my sense of the twilight landscape, I chose a self-contained, curved shape that feels like it’s hiding something within itself. The structure on the surface, applied in several layers with drops of stoneware slip with a rubber syringe, to create an enveloping, soft and even slightly loose effect. The dark gray color of the object is achieved by adding metal oxides to the stoneware. (Hanna Miadzvedzeva)

2nd World Ceramic Teapot Competition
“SwanTeapot” by Swanica Ligtenberg (Netherlands, IAC member since 2021)
Swanica Ligtenberg – Excellence Award Member page Swanica finds a spiritual connection with Mother Earth which gives meaning to life. She wants to bring harmony through the creation of ceramic art.	Her love for the colored slips and engraving shows in her blue slipware engraved “SwanTeapot”. – Enjoy my expressions in clay art. –


Prizes and Award 2023

International Biennale of Artistic Ceramics of Aveiro (17th edition)
“Balance in Red” (2023), thin plates composed of narrow strips of coloured bone China porcelain, fired in a stoneware mould, by Paula Bastiaansen.
Paula Bastiaansen – 1st Prize Member page	Separate elements that seek one another in red – a balance in continuous, perpetual motion.

Hidemi Tokutake – 2nd Prize Member page ‘Grow’ embodies the quiet force of nature as it pushes outward—layer by layer, breath by breath. Formed by hand and fired with layered glazes, the sculpture reflects unseen rhythms of growth, decay, and renewal. It is both a gesture of emergence and a meditation on the hidden life within the earth. ‘Grow’ captures the silent yet dynamic force of organic growth. The form is entirely hand-built, with intentional finger marks left on the surface to become part of the texture—echoing the motion of shaping and the bodily presence of the maker. Inspired by botanical structures and geological layering, the piece expands and twists like a living organism. Instead of layered glazes, a dry glaze is brushed directly onto the surface, allowing variations in thickness to create delicate shifts in tone, texture, and tension. These fluctuations evoke erosion, sedimentation, and the layered rhythms of nature. The work embodies a quiet dialogue between control and chance, emergence and erosion, surface and depth—a meditation on the slow, invisible forces that shape all living matter.	“Grow” (2022), Hand-built , middle range , dry glaze, oxide stains, by Hidemi Tokutake.

Blanc de Chine International Ceramic Art Award 2023
“Connected” (2021), Porcelain de Limoges, 3% eggcarton, ceramic stains, by Tinne Debruijne. Photo credit: Olivier Demessemakers
Tinne Debruijne – 1st Prize Member page CONNECTED: “My sculptures grow from intuition, shaped by the curves and rhythms I see in nature, in living things. The forms feel both sensual and abstract, clean in their larger lines yet complex in their textures. They seem to move while staying still, like water that finds its perfect shape for just one moment. I want people to feel drawn to touch them, to come closer. The work should create that immediate urge to hold and embrace, to experience it through your hands, not just your eyes. “Connected” combines Limoges porcelain with three percent egg board paper. Some sections are colored with ceramic stains, then single fired to 1280°C.	I start by building the overall form using a coiling technique, creating different shapes that work as small sculptures on their own. Then I connect these pieces intuitively, placing them in a rhythm that feels natural, like they belong together. Working with paper porcelain gives me freedom. I can reshape everything, even tear it apart completely and start fresh if the form isn’t right. Once the main form is complete, I add paper-thin slats one by one, row by row, using dental tools to place them delicately. The paper creates this frayed, textile-like surface that feels both fragile and strong. My pieces never look completely finished. They stay raw, delicate, imperfect. I’m always searching for new textures that become part of the shape itself, adding dimensions that the work needs to feel alive. Perfect in its imperfection, exactly as it should be.” (Tinne Debruijne)

“End, Begin” (2019), fabric dipped in slip, hand-built, by Ji Fan.
Fan Ji – 2nd Prize Member page This work engages with the micro-histories inscribed within personal memory, translating ephemeral domestic rituals into enduring material forms.	Textiles—once ceaselessly in motion through acts of folding, wiping, and washing—are reconstituted in ceramic, their textures fossilised into suspended surfaces. The woven cakes, poised between reality and fantasy, function as temporal monuments to unrecorded labour and the affective residues of lived experience. In freezing these fleeting gestures, the work invites reflection on the impermanence of material and the intimate layers of memory.


Marta Palmieri – 2nd Prize Member page Life Cliff 2 evokes rocks, minerals, and industrial remnants through rough, irregular forms that seem to carry the traces of time. The surfaces recall geological formations, fossils, and archaeological remains, while cracks and fractures symbolize shifts in the Earth’s crust, reflecting the tensions and conflicts that shape our planet. These abstract forms suggest a vision of the future in which nature and humanity are called to find a new balance.	By combining clay and glass in a composition built on layering and overlapping, fragments emerge that resemble the ruins of contemporary cities. The vertical, fractured shapes rise from the ground like “urban relics,” breathing new life into what has been discarded or forgotten. The work invites reflection on the relationship between natural and artificial forces, emphasizing the urgency of a more sustainable interaction with our environment.

Miho Yatsugi – 3rd Prize “When I apply pressure with my fingers to the fine-grained, supple porcelain clay, it takes on the curve of my fingers. I connect and amplify those curves. Waves and rhythms emerge. The clay and I take turns guiding and chasing each other as we create the form.” (Miho Yatsugi)	“surge” (2021), hand-building, reduction firing at 1250 degree, by Miho Yatsugi.

62nd Faenza Prize
“Eclectic Paradise of Earth”, by Yves Malfliet (Belgium, IAC member since 2013)
Yves Malfliet – Faenza Prize Over 35 Member page Yves Malfliet evolves by constantly reinventing his work through witty and stimulating creations. The process of working with clay is characterised by multiple techniques that create a harmonious whole.	The intellectual aspect of the work leads to an investigation of our society and, more profoundly, of the remnants of society, through the fusion and apparent collapse of objects, enclosed in boxes in which everything is piled up, like bric-à-brac or rubbish. The work encompasses the entire space given: wall, table, floor in a total installation of great originality.
“Courtyard Twilight Series IV” (2022), by Bao Wei (Chine, IAC member since 2023)
Bao Wei – Faenza Prize Under 35 Member page The concentric circles suggest a type of traditional architecture in southern China that refers to family cohesion. An architecture that is disappearing under the pressure of urbanisation. This abstract form of architecture becomes a ceramic creation. The architectural symbolism of concentric circles takes shape thanks to two main architectural materials, wood and loess (silt and clay).	The work narrates the relationship of ancient peoples with nature, their survival through their wisdom and the balance between man and nature. Science, technology and folk customs come together, reflecting on the harmony between mankind and nature.

2023 Jingdezhen Ceramic Art Biennale
“Untitled” by Maria ten Kortenaar (IAC member since 2017)
Maria ten Kortenaar – Kaolin Prize Member page
“You May Think You Are Alone…” by Jason Walker (IAC member since 2025)
Jason Walker – Kaolin Prize


Prizes and Award 2021

The 12th International Ceramics Competition Mino, Japan
“Life” by Vilma Villaverde.	Vilma Villaverde – Silver Award Member page “Life”: Recovered after being disregarded and lying underground, a piece discovered in the Shigaraki area comes to my hands. It is a urinal burned in a noborigama kiln, that had been cast aside and buried. Ceramics, enduring noble material, witness of persistence, gave itself to my potter hands to be taken back to life and resume its cycle of life into a work of art after one hundred years’ time. Reborn into a new object, it stands as the torso of a woman holding up the golden trophy of genesis. It is a woman, as it is ceramics, unutterable symbol of fertility. (Vilma Villaverde)


Korean International Ceramic Biennale (11th Edition)
Darien Arikoski-Johnson – Gold Prize Member’s page “Consciousness is bound to our physicality much like glaze is bound to clay. With which I explore the relationship between consciousness, physicality, and technology. Nonrepresentational bodily forms influence the size and shape of planar components that reside on them, mirroring how physicality affects our cognitive state. Scanned paintings, which reference memories, are digitally manipulated and fuzzed to the surface. Asking how technology influences our memory, perception, and experience of the world.” (Darien Arikoski-Johnson)	“Fragmented Framing” by Darien Arikoski-Johnson

“Homunculus LR” (2020), ceramic and glaze, slab building, by Cho Ming-Shun.
Ming-Shun Cho – Gold Prize Member’s page “Teapots are not merely objects, but episodes. While they are static functional objects on tables, when people use them the connection between organic and inorganic matter is enriching as interaction generates emotion. While brewing tea, people discover a profound connection with their teapot — akin to human-pet relationships. A close bond is created in the delicate union between a hand and handle, linked by the heat of life in the teapot. I cherish this relationship between humanity and our utensils.	This symbiosis evolves a teapot’s lifelike characteristics. A teapot and a hand combine to bring out a new life; the hand is a part of the teapot, and the teapot is a part of the hand. This symbiotic relationship is a new relationship between teapots and humans; thus, the teapot has walking feet and emotional motion making them temporal episodes rather than static objects.” (Ming-Shun Cho)


International Biennale of Artistic Ceramics of Aveiro (16th Edition)
“Big Smile”, 42 x 40 x 21cm, stoneware and porcelain, oxide and pigments, by Ellen van der Woude.
Ellen van der Woude – 1st Place Member’s page “Nature is of fundamental importance. My sculptures are a reflection of my close observation and connection to the natural world, its resilience and fragility, while also acknowledging lost links between humanity and nature. I pay tribute to the natural world and hope to remind people to slow down, reconnect with nature and contribute to its conservation.	Working intuitively, I combine different clay bodies and porcelain to create imaginative sculptures reminiscent of sub-marine sea life or blooming flora. Rather than relying on glazes, I manipulate textures, stain oxides and colour clay to add visual and tactile interest. All my work is hand built, therefore all pieces are unique. The Big Smile series were created after a long dark winter. Longing for light and sun I wanted to create something full of happiness and energy, something to make you smile and to remind you of all the good things life has to offer.” (Ellen van der Woude)

“ETA 24.06” by Marie-Josée Comello. © Eric Smeets – Fotografie
Marie-Josée Comello – 2nd Place Member’s page ” ‘ETA’ is an abbreviation used in the aviation and stands for ‘Estimated Time of Arrival’. ETA 24.06 thus refers to a fictional time of arrival. For this work I was interested in the ‘Meantime’, the moment between waking and sleeping, the twilight zone between daytime and night time. It refers to the inability of holding time, which is elusive when you want to grab it.	Research about our past and future provides us knowledge to enable ourselves to understand our place in time and space. My search deals with the disturbance of this knowledge, starting from the fascination for fragments; I am curious about the absent parts, the still not finished stories and no less the void that a fragment carries along with it. It is about the boundary between the known and the unknown, the twilight zone. There is silence on the dividing line of meanings.” (Marie-Josée Comello)