It was a real treat to muse on the questions posed by writer and art lover Lara Munro, below is an excerpt from our interview and you can read the full chat by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.

Photographer and ceramicist, Tor Harrison, accidently fell into ceramics. It was her love for tactility that instinctively drew her to the medium. Harrison was fortunate to grow up in cornwall, surrounded and inspired by the varied landscape, which subsequently drew her back in her late twenties. Before returning, she spent time in London and travelling across the globe, visiting diverse places from rural farms to capital cities. Her slow and meditative process to creating hand built ceramics requires limited equipment and results in beautifully refined works that reflect her strong affiliation with nature. Harrison embraces the limitless possibilities of ceramics and its ability to compliment her appreciation of tuning in with the self and her surroundings.

You work with traditional ceramic techniques - which ones, and where did you learn these skills?

I mostly use pinch and coiling techniques to slowly build up shapes. There is something very primal about working with clay, especially with very limited equipment, just your hands and this incredible substance from the earth. There is no right way to handbuild, no exact science and that is really freeing. There is a kind of limitless future potential and a deep connection to the past. I learnt most of the pinching techniques from Hannah Lawrence and have developed my own other imperfect ways of manipulating the clay.

What do you enjoy most about the process of creating an object?

I love that I don’t start out with a fixed idea of what is going to be created. I want to give space to the clay to allow forms to emerge in a more dynamic way of making. There is an intuitive direction that I try to follow, tuning in with touch. There is a lot of time and space between finishing building a piece and the final, glazed object. I love that this can alter expectations and really allows me to feel present and grateful.

It would seem nature informs your pieces?

I love the elemental proximity we have in Cornwall, the wild edges of a land mass and those liminal spaces created by moving tides and eroding material. I’m drawn to that feeling of awe inspiring ancient space and sense of deep time that you can access here, especially along parts of the coast that have huge tide-softened rocks and pools. I feel more in tune with my own natural cycles here and part of a greater ebb and flow. It’s hard to not feel the effects of big energetic full moons and heavy spring tides and I do try to honour these cycles within the flow of my own life and creativity.

Can you tell me some of your main influences?

I am fascinated by the way that humans give meaning to objects and the interaction and conversation between objects in our spaces. A considered curation of personal things can be deeply moving, comforting and revealing, it feels both private and public. I want to explore these ideas around objects and our sense of self. I can find inspiration in so many ways, beautiful architecture, a conversation with a friend, elements in the landscape - the list is endless..

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