Abbey Design Collection

The Abbey pieces began with an ambition: to throw a double-walled vase tall enough to play with depth. The Abbey design cuts through the clay entirely negative space shaped into windows, arches, and openings that echo the great ruined abbeys of the west of Ireland.

It was technically demanding work. Pulling two walls from a single ball of clay to that height meant a long run of failures before the form found its confidence. But the design was worth the stubbornness.

What made it click was the candlelight. Once a flame was placed inside, the cut-out negative space came alive shadow and glow shifting through the openings like light through eight-hundred-year-old stone. That discovery led naturally to a second form: a bottle-shaped lantern, more focused, more intimate. The two forms found each other and have stayed together ever since.

Each piece is hand-thrown using the double-wall technique both walls pulled from a single ball of clay then carved and cut by hand. No two are identical. The glaze palette draws from the same landscape that inspired the design: the limestone greys, deep blacks, and quiet greens of the Irish west.