Meet the Maker: Studio Janneke

I’m an artist and ceramicist originally from the Netherlands but now living and working in London. I create small collections of feel-good ceramics informed by graphic design, illustration and print. From one-offs to limited runs, each and every piece is handmade with care in my South-London studio. To me, clay is always a collaboration between maker and material, so I use a wide variety of techniques and let the process of making guide the final work.

Tell us more about your ways of working

Inspiration can come from anywhere, but I need to feel relaxed to be able to soak it up. When I get to slow down, I look at the world in a different way and I see things I wouldn’t have noticed before. I love environments that gently present themselves to you, and invite you to find your own treasures. Kettle’s Yard embodies that for me. It is a living space, so it changes all the time – you see something new each visit. Jim and Helen Ede took such care collecting and arranging their finds, playing with light and seeing beauty in the mundane. It is inspiring at an almost practical level: just find the things that you think are beautiful, treat them as art and your home will feel like a museum made just for you.

What inspired your Kettle’s Yard range?

Creating little spaces around the house to display treasures encourages you to keep your eyes peeled for interesting finds wherever you go – it’s like training yourself to see beauty in the world around you. I love mudlarking, beachcombing and drying or pressing flowers. The many dried flowers found around Kettle’s Yard inspired a series of tube vases specifically designed to display spare stems. Each one comes with a hand-tied posy of a few dried blooms to get started.

Editions is an ongoing exploration of these imagined vessels, inviting people to pick their favourites and curate their own collection of handmade ceramic miniatures. Display them alongside souvenirs, memories and finds from nature, and a personal collection can slowly grow into a mini museum that still fits on a single shelf.

These two miniatures are designed especially for Kettle’s Yard, and take inspiration from the house itself. The lemons are a nod to the famous fresh lemon on the pewter platter in the dining room – which itself echoes the yellow dot in Joan Miró’s Tic Tic painting nearby. The pears pay homage to William Scott’s eponymous lithograph from 1979, which is above the large white sofa in the lower level extension. The bowls reference some of the features Lucie Rie’s ceramics are famous for, like the undulating rim on the white bowl, and the abrupt foot of the black bowl.

I love so many things about the house! Maybe I can just come and live there? I might pinch the Gregorio Vardanega Disc (1960), but I wouldn’t want to upset the plants on the landing: some of them have been growing there for decades! If there are any William Scotts and Ben Nicholsons going spare, I’d happily adopt those too. Also, as a cat person, the front paws of the cat from Christopher Wood’s Boy with a Cat (Jean Bourgoint) always make me chuckle. You can tell immediately if an artist is a cat person by their observations.

Museum shops are the best shops, period. I never leave empty-handed. I always pick up some postcards of my favourite works to jog my memory when I feel uninspired. I’m a notoriously good gifter, and Kettle’s Yard is one of my not-so-secret sources: I particularly love well-illustrated children’s books (like ceramicist Kenesha Sneed’s wonderful Many Shapes of Clay) and anything that inspires people to try something creative themselves like the Sunography kits. Finally, I am a sucker for stationery and can’t resist a nice notebook or a sticker set and I always keep some Hadley or Brie Harrison greeting cards at hand – they work for all occasions.