Hi! My name is Helle and I originally come from Sweden but the UK has been my home for almost seven years now. Initially we settled in County Durham but in 2019 we crossed the county lines and moved to lovely Richmond.

For as long as I can remember arts and crafts in some shape or form have always played a part in my life. Pencils and pens, brushes and paint, textiles and thread have constantly lured me to try to create something with their help. I have always tried to make some kind of space for my creativity at the same time as I’ve juggled a professional career as well as family life. At times that has of course been a very limited space but now, in my fifties, I finally have the opportunity to immerse myself more in what has always been close to my heart.

In 2019 I decided to try my hand at ceramics, something that I had wanted to do for quite a while. I enrolled in a basic pottery course and ever since then I have been hooked!

I really enjoy the tactile process of creating something with my hands, taking a lump of clay and trying to translate a thought in my mind into something three-dimensional. I often find that my original idea will evolve as I build, with the clay telling me what it is willing to do and what it will not accept. Cracking the kiln is always an exciting moment, the anticipation and not knowing if things have turned out as you thought they would!

I am very fascinated by the textures we find in nature, be it on a piece of coral, the shape of a seed head or the veins of a rhubarb leaf. My pieces are never a true replica of something found in nature, it is an inspiration and then my interpretation, which I then incorporate into what I build. What I find is so fantastic is that the more I look at shapes and textures, the more I discover.