Sabri Ben-Achour

[Image above] Credit: Art Insider, YouTube

When you mix science with art while embracing imperfection, beautiful things happen.

Sabri Ben-Achour, an artist who makes his living as a reporter, creates unusual ceramics inspired by the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi—finding beauty in imperfection.

He developed his own artistic method by mixing powerfully strong magnets into clay to create distinctive stalactite-looking “spindles.”

Credit: Art Insider, YouTube

Ben-Achour also uses electroforming to incorporate copper crystals into some of his works:

Credit: Art Insider, YouTube; Sabri Ben-Achour, Instagram

And he uses self-cracking clay to create irregular patterns in his other pieces:

Credit: Art Insider, YouTube

Ben-Achour also mixes gold into his glazes for some of his works:

Credit: Art Insider, YouTube

The artist says he is inspired by nature, like zoo animals, the outdoors, or through his travels.

“I see these things and they stick in my mind and I think, ‘how can I find that; how can I make that happen? Can I create the conditions in the clay, in this material, to replicate that?'” he asks in the video.

“I try and unlock what the natural world has to show us…I think people are primed to find beauty in the orderly disorder of nature.”

In other words—wabi-sabi.

Watch the video below to see the artist demonstrate his techniques.

Credit: Art Insider, YouTube

Want to read more articles like this? Subscribe to the Ceramic Tech Today newsletter to continue to receive the latest news in the ceramic and glass industry right in your inbox! Visit this link to get started.

Share/Print