Flora Fabris - Studio Potter

I realised I have forgotten to take part in @find.amaker week this year, so here is a small introduction for those who don’t know me yet, or who have recently joined. I haven’t been a potter all my life. I grew up in the Western Pyrenees, surrounded by vast, shifting landscapes. I spent my time in the mountains, trekking in the summer and skiing through winters, finding beauty more in mathematics and physics than in art. I followed a fairly classical engineering path in France, with two years of classes préparatoires and three years of engineering school. Somewhere along the way, I also chose to study Japanese. At the time, it felt like a quiet curiosity, but it stayed with me. I had a brief moment of glory as a civil engineering intern for TML, working on the piercing of the Channel Tunnel (maybe a sign of what would come later), then spent a few years as a project manager in infrastructure consultancy. Alongside that, I began exploring mixed media, creating abstract paintings using organic materials I would make myself. Potato starch, flour, aubergine skins, coffee, tea, and natural pigments formed my palette. Later, using that same tunnel I briefly helped piercing, I moved to the UK, where I raised three children and renovated four homes. At that time, I was still working with my hands, but in different ways. Painting walls and children’s faces, kneading sourdough rather than clay. My path to ceramics wasn’t direct, but it feels continuous. I have a mind that needs structure and seeks spontaneity at the same time. Clay allows both. I revisit traditional forms through that tension, and my work rarely follows a single path. There is also a quieter thread running through it all. Those early Japanese classes stayed with me, and over time I began to notice resonances between the landscapes I grew up in and those I encountered through Japanese culture. I often think of a liquidambar tree in my mother’s garden, which I watched closely as a child. Its slow transformation through the seasons, reaching a quiet intensity in autumn. It became a way of noticing time passing. To be continued in the comments… ••• #findamaker #mystory #florafabris

A few weeks ago, I spoke with @domcorlett about my practice, inspirations, and the path that led me to clay. The conversation is now part of the Heirloom of the Future series in Homes & Antiques, highlighting a different maker each month. I’m quietly grateful to have been included. Thank you @domcorlett for such a thoughtful article, and to the editorial team for their patience with my photos. The article is featured in the May 2026 issue, out now via @homes_antiques . ••• #heirloomofthefuture #homesandantiques #ceramicartist #florafabris #ceramics @london.potters @find.amaker

If this feels slightly hypnotic, that was intentional. The slip rings were just me having fun. ••• #hypnotic #asmr #satisfying #potterswheel #pottery

This is one of the teabowls now with @katsute100 tea salon for Ocha No Ma, a series of tea tasting experience happening at the end of May in their Broadway Market location. Both grounded and expressive, I like how this bowl carries the calm presence of an object made slowly, for moments of pause and reflection. ••• #pottery #chawan #teatasting #teaceremony #wabisabiceramics

A plate gathering for those Summer sharing tables… This weekend, some examples of my handmade tableware will be presented at the Museum of the home for @londoncraftweek . This event has been organised by the lovely people behind @vigourandskills . It will showcase over 25 makers in a curated exhibition, alongside a series of live demonstrations and hands-on workshops. The event is free and you don’t have to book in advance, unless you want to take part in a workshop. 📅 Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 May 2026 🕥 10am-4pm 📍Museum of the Home 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA ••• #lcw #pottery #handmadetableware #craft #plates

MAKER SPOTLIGHT: @ooak_creation Flora Fabris creates handmade stoneware vessels rooted in the wabi-sabi appreciation of imperfection and natural simplicity. Her work is fired in an electric kiln and finished with glazes she makes from wood ash, creating soft, atmospheric surfaces that echo natural processes. Each piece brings a quiet, tactile presence to daily rituals, inviting a slower rhythm at the table and a closer connection to the materials from which it is made. Her studio is in SE London. Find Ooak Creation in the Barn at Ceramics South East, 5th & 6th June 2026. @theclay.studio

She could be a thousand years old… or just emerged from the kiln yesterday. There’s something about certain forms that seem to exist outside of time. Marks held in clay, ash, iron, movement, fire, all settling into a surface that feels quietly familiar, as if it has always been here. I’m drawn to making pieces that carry that sense of age, presence, and stillness. Objects that don’t ask for attention, but slowly hold it. ••• #ceramics #contemporaryceramics #wabisabi #ceramicart #pottery

I’ve just finished this small series of Tatami vessels, just in time for @potfest.co.uk South East later this month. They are made in this beautiful Xing clay from @solargil , a material I always return to with excitement. It travels a long way to reach my studio, and here in the UK it remains something of a rarity, precious enough that I never use it lightly. Perhaps that is why the quiet refinement of the Tatami forms seems to suit it so naturally. The depth of its red, the softness of its surface, the discipline of the lines. And for the jazz heads among you, here’s a small coincidence I’ve been quietly enjoying… Glynde Place, where Potfest will soon take place, is also home each year to the Love Supreme Jazz Festival. Clay, red earth, and a little suggestion of love. I hope your week holds some of it too. Potfest South East 22-24/05 Glynde Place ••• #ceramics #pottery #redclay #potfest #glyndeplace

お茶の間 Ocha No Ma We are pleased to introduce the first edition of our tea tasting experience, taking place across four days in May. This marks our first collaboration with the ceramic artists involved, bringing together seasonal Japanese teas and vessels made specially for the occasion. The tasting will explore three different teas, each brewed in different ways and accompanied by small seasonal pairings, alongside matcha served with traditional nerikiri. The experience will take place at the hidden bar counter at Katsute100 Broadway Market. 23rd, 24th, 30th & 31st May 12pm – 1:15pm
1:45pm – 3pm
3:30pm – 4:45pm Katsute100 Broadway Market 4 Broadway Market Mews,
London, E8 4TS Featuring works by
@the_otterpotter 
@koikeeimi 
@ooak_creation 
@timlpots 60 pound per person. Ticket booking via our website. Photography by @ben_wescott and @riyeonglight . . . . . . #katsute100 #london #tea #matcha #cafe

I’m in the middle of preparations for @potfest South East in less than two weeks now. In between pottery jobs, there are lots of things to do in the garden at this time of the year. Yesterday, I pruned my bay leaf tree to encourage new growth. I kept a few leaves to use in my cooking, and while arranging them on a tray for drying, it thought that if it wasn’t for the smell, those could be mistaken for tea leaves… I haven’t tried a bay leaf tea yet, but this rimmed ash glazed bowl will be part of the journey to Glynde Place. Potfest South East Glynde Place Fri 22/05 - Sun 24/05

I was listening to a Radio France podcast recently about why so many people are being drawn to ceramics, and much of it resonated with my own practice. In a world that often asks us to move faster, clay asks for the opposite. To slow down. To pay attention. To work through touch, repetition, and presence. There’s something sensual and almost hypnotic in the rhythm of making. Wedging, centering, trimming, glazing… the same gestures repeated until the mind becomes quieter and the hands begin to know the way. And somewhere in that process, something softens. A sense of lâcher prise… of letting go. Of releasing the need to control every outcome and learning instead to listen, respond, and trust the material… and to a certain extent, trust life. Maybe this is part of why working with clay, and wood ash glazes, feels so deeply human. It reconnects us, not only with the material, but with ourselves, with our origins, with our history, with our senses, with our environment, and often with each other. It reminded me that pottery is never only about making objects. Sometimes it’s simply about being present in the moment. This ash glazed hand-built chawan will come with me to @potfest.co.uk South East in Glynde Place in a couple of weeks. ••• #pottery #handmade #teabowl #ikebana #quietceramics

A new plate for the Together collection of everyday tableware. I wanted it simple and versatile enough, to be matched with all the other items in the range.