About
I'm an Irish artist and designer based on the Spanish island of Mallorca. My practice is founded in a lifelong engagement with materials, making, and what objects can hold. After two decades in design, I've returned to my fine art roots through ceramics.
Working across sculpture, ceramic objects and functional forms, I create pieces that exist somewhere between art and design. Some take the form of enigmatic figures, while others move towards sculptural furniture and domestic objects that quietly inhabit a space.
Alongside this, I develop Trace, a long-term research practice that works with native plants to embed the memory of place into ceramic glazes, tracing a geographic arc from Japan through Ireland to Western Australia.
Experience
- 2026 Jan–Mar — Apprenticeship, Kasen Kiln (喜多窯), Seto, Japan. Worked with Katō Hiroshige (加藤廣重), 14th-generation potter and head of Kitagama/Kasen Kiln, Akazu, Seto. Covered traditional Akazu-yaki glazing, hand-building, wheel and decorative techniques, plus systematic development of the site-specific glaze methodology across three firing atmospheres. Continued development of Creature Studies during this period.
- 2025 Nov — Course in large sculptural form and ceramic furniture with Austin Coudriet, Berlin.
- 2025 Jun — Residency, Kasen Kiln (喜多窯), Seto, Japan. A month with Katō Hiroshige, Akazu, Seto, focused on wheel, Shino and Oribe traditions.
- 2025 Feb — Workshop in high-temperature glaze formulation with Ana Felipe. Triaxial, binary and tetraxial test methods, firing curves. Palma, Mallorca.
- 2022–2025 — Studio practice and wheel tuition with Roberto Paparcone, Paparkone Studio, Palma, Mallorca.
- 2022 Jul — Workshop in Japanese glazes, chawan and modelling with Misako Homma (ceramicist/tea ceremony practitioner). Palma, Mallorca.
Education
- 2000–2001 — MSc Computing & Design, University of Ulster.
- 1997–1999 — BDes Product Design, National College of Art and Design, Dublin (1995–1999); third year at Politecnico di Milano (1997–1998).
- 1993–1994 — Certificate in Fine Art, Coláiste Dhúlaigh College of Further Education, Dublin.
Photo credit: Emily Deng
Things that shape my practice
A fascination with what shapes us
I am deeply interested in the things that form us. Culture, environment, memory, symbolism and inherited behaviours. The stories we absorb without realising. I’m drawn to the tension between the visible and invisible parts of ourselves and how emotion, identity and experience can be carried through objects, materials and form.
Material as collaborator
I’m interested in materials that speak back. Clay, ash, fire, minerals, native botanicals, surfaces shaped by time and process. I don’t see making as imposing an idea onto a material but entering into a conversation with it. Some of the most meaningful outcomes arrive unexpectedly through experimentation, accident and attention.
Making as a way of thinking
I’ve always made things. I spent two decades working across model making, product and digital design, and creative strategy with cultural organisations, educators, makers and ethical businesses. That experience continues to shape how I approach my practice today. Research, structure, documentation and storytelling remain central to how I work. Making has never been separate from thinking. It’s how I understand the world.
Say hi, connect with me! I’m easy to find. I’m @orlalarkin everywhere.