Heon Suk Hong is a Korean artist based in Spain.
She has been working for many years with two materials
that she is deeply in love with, clay and Korean mulberry paper Hanji.

Where ceramics skills were formally learnt in a school in Madrid,
her work with Hanji is all self-taught. This traditional paper art
gives Hong a direct connection to her roots and to the traditional crafts
of her country, perhaps particularly pertinent
to someone living as an expat.

Hong’s work is characterised by its purity in form
and simple decorations. Looking again to the history
of Korea, she draws particular inspiration
from the white porcelain pieces of from the 16th
and 17th centuries that she has seen
in the Seoul’s National Museum.

In porcelain, she explains, she finds a means
of celebrating traditional ceramics
whilst also embracing a certain modernity in form.

“I usually work with porcelain, which is a material
I find elegant, luminous and inspiring.
I also love its pure and peaceful white colour.”

The J Bottle Series, which is included in the Cluster Crafts online exhibition and in the Cluster online store, are inspired by the shape of the traditional
15th century Korean vase called a Jangun.
The shape has come up in her work for many years.

Slovenian ceramicist Ana Haberman
has built up a comprehensive collection
of elegant table and homeware
that she finishes with signature textured finishes.

Her pieces are highly functional and fit for the demands
of everyday use, and yet they oppose the haste of modern life
with their artistic look. Through her work Haberman asks each individual to be more present, to take time to notice and enjoy
the simplicity of each domestic moment.

“I see working with clay as an endless process
of learning and exploration, not just about materials
that I am working with but also how state of mind
is involved in that process and can be sensed
in the work itself. It is like a journey through
life in a touchable form.”

Like Hong, Haberman’s technique also date back centuries,
connecting her to the history of the craft of clay
and yet not preventing her from achieving a contemporary look.

“I like the idea that my main tools are my hands.
Most of all I enjoy the slow contemplative process
of hand working and I love to see traces of that process, like marks and fingerprints in the final pieces.
I am always enthusiastic and curious about the results because no matter how much you try,
how much effort you put in to making "perfect" form
with hands after clay meets high temperatures
there will be some imperfections.
And sometimes they occur in a fine balanced way
where I find the beauty.”

Included in the Cluster Crafts online exhibition
and store is a collection titled Earth Touch,
which comprises hand-built plates with a scratched sgraffito pattern, a set of thin pinched bowls
and three kurinuki cups.

“I like to present pieces in sets that create a story, explains Haberman.
“I have played with different hand building techniques
that all have different characteristic and put different imprints 
and left different marks in final pieces. The idea is that you need
to touch items to really understand them. The pieces are not glazed,
so you get to fully touch the main material.”

Haberman hopes that her pieces have an organic look to them
that calls the view to a deeper appreciation of nature,
and of their own deeper self.

“I do not directly transform shapes from nature into clay objects,”
she explains, “but nature inspires my inner worlds
and then those are transformed into material objects.”