Michele Quan adorns her ceramics with images relating to the wonder and mysteries of the universe. “Reading books on Eastern thought and practices is the root inspiration of my work,” she tells us. “Clay can transform a moment or idea into stone.

Michele talks about the symbolic meaning of shapes, the energy of colors, and wanting her practice to be about “honoring the things we love”—but quickly adds “I hope I don’t sound like a woo woo; I’m pretty much an irreverent realist.”

Long known for her stoneware temple bells and disc curtains—leading her work to be dubbed “haute hippie”— Michele has turned to making practical objects of late. Since relocating her studio from Brooklyn to upstate NY, in 2020, she’s created a collection of garden-related pieces: planters, hanging pots, vases, and bird feeders. There are curious and beautiful new indoor-outdoor sculptures, too.

Photography by Bobby Fisher, courtesy of Michele Quan (@michelequanstudio).

N.B.: Much of Michele’s work is ready to ship, but some of it, such as this piece labeled pre-order on her site, is custom made and can take up to 16 weeks.

“The planters are all thrown on the wheel in a custom groggy clay body that actually fires to a toasty brown,” explains Michele. “All of my work is covered multiple times with a white clay based material that fires to a matte, slightly crackly surface. And in the gas reduction firing, the iron in the clay deepens creating a lot of variation and depth to the white.”

See also:

• Object of Desire: A Minimalist Ceramic Birdhouse by Lisa Viscardi
• Object of Desire: A Tulipière for Every Season
• Melissa Goldstein’s Hand-Painted Ceramics, Inspired by Her Brooklyn Garden