Hanna Järlehed

Ateljéföreningen Chokladfabriken

Ceramicist

©Clive Tompsett

Exploring endless possibilities

Hanna's studio is in an old chocolate factory
Water, forests and trees are recurring themes in her work
Her works capture the pale light and cold colours of Sweden

Hanna Järlehed Hyving trained in ceramics at the University of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg, and is still based in the city. Her work revolves around her interest in ceramics’ many forms of expression. She mixes stoneware and porcelain clay, which she then forms freely. She usually works with transparent glazes in thick layers, which she fires in a combined electric and gas kiln. “I love it that clay has endless possibilities, but that it also gives a lot of resistance and challenges. The smallest change I make in the choice of materials or in the way I work leads to new unforeseen consequences.”

Interview

©Clive Tompsett

©Clive Tompsett

When did you develop a passion for ceramics?: In childhood. My father worked as a designer and art teacher, and I always had access to art materials and clay, among other things. When I was five or six, I used to build cities and fairytale worlds in clay.
Why did you choose to build a career in craftsmanship?: I don’t think I ever really made a choice, exactly. After high school I thought I would do something that I really liked, perhaps for a year or two, before I continued studying. But then it just rolled on and, almost 30 years later, I am still working steadily as a ceramicist.
Where do you get inspiration from?: I am inspired by the materials themselves: the clays and the glazes, their resistance and formability, the transformation process from soft and moldable clay to hard and fired ceramics.
Does your work draw on tradition or push you to be innovative?: There is no unexpected technical innovation in my work, but hopefully the creative expression of my works is my own, and therefore, in combination with old materials and techniques, represents something new.

Hanna Järlehed is an expert artisan: she began her career in 1998