“There is a Japanese way of thinking that looks on a piece of ceramic without food as unfinished.” wrote the great chef Tetsuya Wakuda.
“But put some food on it, and the piece has a life, a reason to be.”
Wakuda was writing about his potter, Mitsuo Shoji. But he might have been writing about the pottery of Sinead Axworthy, of SINK studio in Milltown, County Kerry.
Sinead makes beautiful dishes, often for professional chefs, and when the chef puts a piece of food on them, then they instantly have a life, they find their reason to be. With a piece of cooking aboard, the vessel can be launched.
You might have enjoyed using Sinead’s work at some of the leading food destinations in Ireland: at Dede in West Cork, at Kai in Galway, at Dunmore House Hotel, just outside Clonakilty. Or, more recently, at 505 in Dingle, where Damien Ring and Suzi O’Gorman use Sinead’s plates to stunning effect.
When Damien and Suzi were ordering their ceramics from Sink studio, in nearby Milltown, they knew what they wanted. Yes, they loved the off-white plates which Sinead had created. But, asked Damien: “Could we have this 80 grams heavier?”
“I kinda love that, though” says Sinead, standing in the aesthetically messy space that is her one-room studio in Milltown, a town seemingly poised between rapid expansion and steady dereliction. “He was like: can we have them 750-800 grammes? and I was like, yeah!”
Ahmet Dede, on the other hand, “was completely different. He gave me so much creative freedom. I like people telling me what to do, but I also like people just saying: go!”
Sinead brings a box of samples of her work from which the restaurateurs choose what they want. “They say, okay, I like this texture, I like this glaze, I like this shape, and then I go home and make something, and that’s what I did with Ahmet. I brought my samples and he was like: yeah, love this texture, love this shape, I want it in that colour, I want it this size…”
“I’m obsessed with textures,” she says, “and that’s why I love clay, because you can print anything on it. I love going on walks, collecting things, so if I’m on the beach I’ll collect a stone and roll it across the piece to see what texture I can get.”
Sinead’s pottery works because it harmonises with all the elements of the dining experience. The ingredients plated by the chef are framed, contained and counterpointed by the vessels, so that the food lies in lockstep with the plating, creating an effect which is both pictorial and abstract, both visual and tactile.
And then Sinead’s signature embellishments – fingermarks, shell impressions, lines drawn as if across a landscape – add further contrast, with the plates taking on an active role in the creation and serving and success of the dish.
Private clients often contact Sinead after seeing her work in various restaurants, and in addition to her pottery she runs pottery classes in the studio in Milltown, from one-to-one classes to small groups of 6 people, under the Flow Pottery brand.
You will find her on the Main Street in Milltown, between Alma’s chipper and the Kingdom Bakery, crafting exquisite plates and pottery and eating vessels before sending them off into the world to find their reason to be.
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