In this conversation, Ömer Öner discusses his practice in the context of New Members of the Craft Potters Association at Contemporary Ceramics. He reflects on his working methods, sources of inspiration, and the ideas that underpin his work. The exhibition runs from the 2nd – 25th April 2026.
Interview by Dee Honeybun
The Exhibition
Contemporary Ceramics: How has your work grown or changed for this exhibition?
Ömer Öner: What has shifted is the emphasis on transition: from object to mould, from mould to ceramic casts. Slip-casting has become more central, allowing me to move between preservation and transformation more consciously. I am less interested in the individual object as an outcome and more in its final result on a ceramic object through replication, reinterpretation, and reconstruction.
History and Object
Contemporary Ceramics: Your background is rooted in Medieval History, a discipline deeply concerned with how objects survive, carry meaning, and tell stories across time. How does that historical lens inform the way you look at a discarded door handle or a fragment of metal furniture — do you see found objects as having their own kind of archaeology?
Ömer Öner: Yes — I see found objects as having their own archaeology. My background in history shapes the way I read objects as physical evidence, not just materials.
A discarded door handle or fragment of metal furniture is never insignificant for me; it carries traces of use, value, and abandonment. In that sense, it functions like an archaeological sherd. They become accidental records of everyday life. I don’t need to dig, but where the streets, skips, charity shops, or online marketplaces become contemporary excavation sites.
The Moment of Selection
Contemporary Ceramics: With found objects as your raw material, the act of choosing what to pick up must be a significant part of your creative process. What draws you to a particular object, and is there a moment of recognition when you know something has potential — or does that understanding only emerge later in the studio?
Ömer Öner: My first response when I encounter a discarded object on the street is an instinctive imagination of its potential usage on a ceramic form.
A chair leg might become a candle holder, the limb of an animal figure, or a spout. I collect objects not only for their formal functions, but also for their surface qualities and their capacity to be reactivated later in the studio.
Sometimes this recognition is sudden, but more often it is delayed. I might pick something up simply because it is interesting or pretty, and only later, its role begins to emerge. I think of this process not only as collecting but more as a form of adoption. The object is not chosen for what it is, but for what it might become.
I am drawn to fragments that feel overlooked, broken, displaced or things that no longer comfortably serve their function. Like archaeological sherds, they are not insignificant remains; they carry traces of use, value, and abandonment.
Preservation and Transformation
Contemporary Ceramics: There is a fascinating tension at the heart of your practice: you go to great lengths to faithfully preserve the form of an object in plaster, only to then radically alter its materiality by casting it in clay. What is it about that act of transformation that interests you, and what do you feel is gained — or lost — when a plastic bed knob becomes porcelain?
Ömer Öner: The act of preserving and transforming objects is central to my practice.
When I make a plaster mould of a found object, I try to capture its surface, shape, and details as accurately as possible. Once it is cast in clay, the object begins to change. For example, a plastic bed knob is usually light, mass-produced, and hardly noticed in everyday life. When I remake it in porcelain, it gains a different colour, more weight, and a sense of fragility.
At this stage, the object is no longer overlooked. Its form, which was once purely functional, becomes ambitious —somewhere between a useful object and a sculpture. Its value also shifts. Something that was cheap and replaceable starts to feel more important and considered.
I am not trying to keep the object exactly as it was. What interests me is this moment of change. For me, the process is not about copying, but about giving the object a new context and a new identity.
In this transformation, the plaster mould preserves the “memory” of the object with precision and acts as a bridge between different states: the industrial and the handmade, the discarded and the adopted, the overlooked and the valued, the fragment and the whole, the useless and the useful.
Replication and Multiplication
Contemporary Ceramics: Slip-casting allows you to reproduce an object many times over. How does multiplying something that began as a single discarded item change its meaning or value — and does the idea of mass production sit comfortably alongside your interest in the handmade and the highly crafted?
Ömer Öner: I see slip-casting as more than just a process linked to mass production; it is also closely connected to touch, precision, and composition.
It allows me to repeat a single found object many times, but each repetition offers a chance to make a change—through colour, slight deformation, or by combining it with other casts to form a larger piece. This repetition shifts the found object’s status. A discarded fragment becomes a series of variations. Through this process, the object moves between uniqueness and mass production. The repetition is not about standardisation, but about exploring difference within similarity.
Multiplication also changes the object’s value. A single found object carries the sense of discovery, but when it is repeated, it begins to function more like a language—each version slightly altering meaning through scale, composition, or its relationship to other elements.
I enjoy the tension between the handmade and the industrial. While slip-casting borrows the logic of mass production, I remain the maker, responsible for how each element is chosen and placed within a functional or decorative ceramic piece.
