I recently spent 4 days in Copenhagen with my partner's cousin and her fiancé, and boy oh boy was it magnificent.
I knew that Denmark had produced a number of very famous designers and ceramicists, but the amount of potteries and galleries and independent makers shops that were in the city was staggering and so unexpected. I was in heaven. I did drag my travel buddies into FAR too many ceramics shops but I cannot get enough of it!
In particular, my favourite shop was Gun Gun, but the exhibition at the National History Museum was the most inspiring. Firstly, the museum was full of stuff I'd never seen before (and I'm an avid museum attender and Wikipedia diver), so it was incredible to get to learn and see lots of new things (Inuit artefacts, Greenland's history and mineral makeup, Ghana and the colonisation of other countries by Denmark), but most importantly the pottery collection in the museum was beyond outstanding to this baby ceramicist.
I was SO inspired, so impressed and just plain gobsmacked by the Cypriot and Greek ceramic collections. I'd seen images of old Greek pottery, but nothing like this.
The shapes of the spouts, the handles and the decoration was all so different to the pottery I typically see online or in galleries these days. It has been SO inspiring to see.
The Design Museum was also incredible and had some really outstanding reimagining's of old works and new pieces exploring Danish folklore.
I can't wait to have some time in the studio to work on some new ideas inspired by these ancient, perfect crafts. It'll probably be in the new year though, so stay tuned. Hopefully I can hold onto this inspired feeling.
