Henry Holland Launches Collection Of T-Shirt Inspired Vases With House of Voltaire

In an ever-growing list of exciting collaborations, Henry Holland Studio has launched a new range of handmade ceramics with House of Voltaire. You can now dress your plants up – quite literally – with this new limited-edition collection of ceramic T-shirt vases. 

Henry Holland Studio Drops Range Of Berghain-Inspired T-Shirt Vases

What Is Henry Holland Studio?

For those of you unfamiliar with Henry Holland Studio, it is renowned for its handcrafted ceramics – particularly Holland’s distinctive adaptation of the traditional Japanese nerikomi technique.

Prior to his life as a potter, the studio’s founder – Henry Holland himself – was the creative director of fashion label House of Holland. It was only in the last few years when trapped indoors during the pandemic and on a hiatus from the world of fashion that he fell in love with ceramics. Unable to access his local Hackney pottery studio where he’d be equipped with your usual pottery wheel and kiln, he discovered the more hands-on nerikomi technique while sitting at his kitchen table.

Holland is particularly enthusiastic about collaboration, having collaborated with The Salad Project on a range of ceramic bowls earlier this summer. ‘I firmly believe that collaboration is key for small brands to grow and reach a global audience,’ he says. ‘By working with like-minded creatives, we can offer our customers exciting, beautifully crafted home products, while also supporting the incredible craftsmanship here in the UK.’

Inside The Collection

This playful new collaboration, is described as a ‘heartfelt ode to the intersection of fashion, art and the cultural spaces that nurture creative expression’. A tale of two cities, the vases seek to encapsulate the distinct creative energies and influences of both Berlin and London. A tribute to both clubbing and clay, who knew these markedly different past-times could make such great bedfellows?

The Berlin vases draw on the city’s sex club scene, particularly the infamous Berghain – a nightclub that is notoriously difficult to get into (though Holland can confirm that he successfully made the cut). These Berlin-inspired pieces are finished in a tactical matte black gaze reminiscent of rubber. Part sculpture and part subversion, these strange designs are complete with all the studs and bondage-style accessories that you would expect of a Berghain-inspired vase. 

Maybe unfittingly for the grey and dreary weather that haunts our capital for the bulk of the year, Holland’s London vases take on a brighter and more nostalgic tone. Referencing the work of performance artist Leigh Bowery and the lost vibrancy of London’s once-thriving nightlife, the designs celebrate the spaces that helped shape Holland’s career. ‘The dancefloor was the great democratiser,’ Holland reflects. ‘It gave me access to collaborators and confidence at a time when I was just a fashion journalist dreaming of becoming a designer.’ Alongside polka-dots, gingham, checks, rosettes, glitter and stars, the vases are finished with a set of sparkling streamers reminiscent of tassled skirts.

How Are They Made?

Holland’s interpretation of the nerikomi technique involves meticulously stacking, folding, and rolling coloured clays into layered slabs. These slabs are then carefully hand-moulded into functional forms, the organic process meaning that no two pieces are ever the same.

 A nod to Holland’s roots in the world of fashion, each vase in the series is modelled after a simple T-shirt. Holland then uses surface design techniques typically used in textiles to add a sense of movement, texture and embellishment to the vases. 

Finally, they are transformed into functional flower vases, completing a journey from fashion to art to homeware. ‘The project felt like a full circle moment,’ says Holland. ‘It’s new territory for me as a ceramicist, but it’s also deeply rooted in where I started.’ Each unique piece is hand-finished and made-to-order in the Henry Holland Studio workshop in Hackney, London. 

How To Buy

The limited edition series of 10 is available exclusively from 21 August in store at House of Voltaire and online at houseofvoltaire.org. Prices start from £600.