13. Ayse Habibe Kucuk
“...with each piece that someone buys they don’t just buy the item; they buy all of the hard work, the tears of experience, the joy of the moment while I create”
There must be something in the water in Clapton because there are so many brilliant ceramicists working in a huge variety of styles here. Ayse Habibe Kacuk is one such creative and her tactile, hand-crafted stoneware pieces are unlike anything else I’ve come across.
I first met Ayse earlier this year when I visited her in her showroom just around the corner from me (see small photo gallery below). But this week, I finally had the opportunity to see her in her shared studio space at Turning Earth (above), just a few minutes down the road in Leyton – a vast, beautifully lit space buzzing with creative energy and activity.
Having been interested in ceramics from an early age, Ayse made the decision to delve deeper into the discipline and studied ceramics at Sakarya University in Turkey. Growing up not far from Istanbul with a furniture-maker for a father and a mother who had a passion for crochet and lacemaking, a creative occupation was always on the cards for Ayse, who says “my childhood memories are filled with my mother making her silk lace patterns… that was my biggest inspiration for creating my lace [ceramics] collection”.
Working with a neutral colour palette, Ayse’s stand-out pieces are made using slabs of clay with her mother’s hand-crocheted lace doilies pressed into them using a rolling pin, to create beautiful and intricate impressions in the clay. These are then either shaped into plates, small dishes or platters with stunning effect. The placement varies with each piece, making a collection of ceramics that are each different from the last, but working beautifully together.
For Ayse, working in her studio is an opportunity to completely switch off. She says “it is maybe a little funny… but it’s so therapeutic to build things with clay, it’s the only moment I leave everything behind and my mind is so clear and empty”. But she struggles with all the usual afflictions of a self-employed creative and lists her most significant struggles, among them making good connections in the industry, promoting herself and her work and approaching potential stockists and galleries. However, she is full of praise for London and, in particular, the people that live there, as she credits them with having a great deal of appreciation for craft and the work that goes into a handmade piece, as well as being more motivated to patronise small or local businesses. Ayse hopes for greater support for artists and creatives once life settles down after the pandemic and in particular, for there to be more affordable studio spaces available.
Ayse takes a very a poetic standpoint when I ask her how it feels to sell her work to a customer: “as an independent artist, with each piece that someone buys they don’t just buy the item; they buy all of the hard work, the tears of experience, the joy of the moment while I create”
Living and working in Hackney has a big influence on Ayse and her work. Her Eastern roots have interwoven with her life in London to give her a perspective on her work that she wouldn’t otherwise have: “when you live in a multicultural city, you have so much to observe - it really fills your mind and soul and propels you to create new work”
When I leave Ayse, I ask her if she has any dreams or plans for the future. She replies simply: “it sometimes feels that I’m already living my dream, because I never thought a life as a ceramicist in London would exist for me when I moved to London 13 years ago”.
To find my edit of Ayse’s beautiful pieces, click here.
To find her on Instagram, click here and to enquire about her workshops, click here