Frosted sponge and overcrowded cakes are just a few of the sweet delicacies Naomi Peterson Clay crafts. Her playful “Cup cakes” take confectionery as a starting point and adds layers that are reminiscent of fondant, ice scoops, berries and chimney.
Many pieces from Peterson are functional, with lids or handles that are used as barrels or coffee mugs. “I am attracted to visual sweetness and I am proposing the potential pleasure of banqueters instead of physically consuming them,” she tells Colossal. “I actually prefer savory and salt food above sweet!”
Flowers supplement playful grid patterns in lively shades, sometimes leaning in a garden theme with topiaary forms. Peterson relies on an intuitive approach that is counted with a wheel combines techniques with hand structure methods such as rinsing, plates and squeezing. “I later build different forms and plan surfaces,” she says. “I think that if I plan the surface and the shape from the start, the process is too controlled, restrictive spontaneity.”
Once the basic form has been completed, Peterson adds elements or removes it by darting-wig-shaped pieces from a cylinder of clay and embellishment with twigs or pressure grinding. “My surfaces require many applications and separate shooting to achieve lively, layered effects,” she says. “Before ceramics, I spent many years painting mainly with oils, which influences many of my surface decisions.”
We often think of confectionery as a token of joy, celebration and togetherness. Every cake and bon bon reflects Peterson’s interest in relationships and the way in which our actions and emotions showed us with others and our communities. The spaces between the point patterns are essential, “not to keep each element at bay, but to connect them,” she says. “Although not physically connected, each of us is important as part of a whole.”
Peterson’s work will be part of Dirt folk: planted, A pop-up exhibition that runs simultaneously with the 2025 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference in March in Salt Lake City. If you are on the east coast, you can see her working Lines and patterns From March 22 to May 24 at Baltimore ClayWorks. Find more about the artist website And Instagram.
