Inspired by nature and all the great designs that the sea and forests provides, Swedish ceramicist Elin Ruist creates delicate, imaginative and spectacular artworks. Thin pieces of porcelain are formed into organic and billowing shapes that create a sense of wonder.
Elin Ruist
What do you call your series of artworks?
– I call this series "Glade" as I imagine these porcelain beings growing in a humid glade in a parallell imaginary world.
What technique have you used?
– I work in porcelain clay and use both pinching, sculpting and wheel throwing techniques to create my artworks. I love using crystalline glazes and I often overlay different glazes to create interesting and nature-like surfaces.
What inspired you to create the artworks you have made for The Ode To?
– My awe for the diversity of beautiful and fantastical shapes that our wild nature accommodates, in the seas and deep forests. I like to make objects that look like beings from an imaginary, and maybe slightly more pastel coloured world. Also the material itself, the porcelain clay, inspires me to make really thin walls and edges with just the right amount for water between my fingers.
Can you tell us about your background and how you came to be an artist?
– I live on the west coast of Sweden, close to Gothenburg. My journey into ceramics started in 2017. I have taken some shorter classes during the years but I consider myself autodidact in the field of arts and crafts. I am a biologist both at heart and in a professional sense. I believe that learning about the morphology of plants, fungi and animals and about ecological relationships have had a large influence on me as an artist.
How would you describe your art and aesthetics in three words?
– Organic, shimmering and delicate.
