A Sense of Place

At an early age, Hannah Watts discovered a close connection between creativity and place. Growing up on a farm in Hampshire, she was immersed in the natural world, which became a rich and lasting source of inspiration. “Open spaces and feeling creative have always gone hand in hand for me,” she says. “I find it hard to be artistic in London, so I have to go back home to the farm every few weeks to reset.”

Now living in the city, shifting from countryside views to urban scenes, the ceramicist refers back to formative places and lets memories inform her practice. In particular, a six-month stay in Cape Town, South Africa, shaped the course of her artistic output. Hannah has been travelling back and forth to Cape Town throughout much of her life to visit family and friends, but she attributes her use of defining techniques and approaches to her longest, most immersive trip.

“I’ve always dabbled with ceramics, but I came across this amazing studio while I was there. On my first day, my mentor demonstrated sgraffito.” Popularised in Renaissance Italy, this method involves carving into a layer of slip or underglaze to form lines and patterns on the clay. Hannah uses it to create bold, abstracted checks and symmetrical motifs on her stoneware platters. “The first thing I tried was quite a geometric pattern – it was like a ‘click’ moment, and I haven't looked back.”

Hannah shapes her platters using moulds, removing them when they’re leather-hard and sketching intuitive lines over their surfaces with a pencil. “The pattern that I draw isn't necessarily the pattern that I end up scratching into the clay,” she explains. “So the faint mark of the pencil sometimes still shows when the glaze goes on. I like seeing the different stages of making in the final product.” This attitude reveals Hannah’s broader embrace of imperfection – she enjoys the slightly “wonky” quality of her work, believing it enhances its character. “Everything has imperfections, but that’s part of it.”

Each pattern unfolds somewhat unpredictably; Hannah might sketch a rough plan before starting on a piece, but finds subtle variations along the way. This loose, instinctive approach reflects the fact that these forms are usually expressions of memory, held in differing degrees of clarity and haziness. “I don’t use photographs, so I’m very much working off the energy of a place or memories I have there – going for a sunset swim, or hiking up a mountain.” Often, she begins with the colour palette, choosing her shades intentionally to evoke a sense of place or a lingering impression from her travels. “The ceramics are little dream worlds that I've concocted from memories of these experiences.”

Alongside coastal expanses and tropical landscapes, Hannah is deeply inspired by the vibrancy of traditional African textiles. During her time in Cape Town, she was introduced to kente, a tribal cloth from Ghana characterised by its dense, rhythmic patterns. These intricate textiles are composed of narrow individual strips, woven on ten-centimetre looms before being stitched together. “The antique versions often have marks and rips because they were used and worn regularly. You can see the craft that has gone into them... they weren't made to be worn just once or twice.” The structures and colours of Hannah’s patterns aim to convey a comparable sense of movement and vitality, translated from cloth onto clay.

Hannah’s pieces for the TOAST New Makers 2026 collection are bound by a rich, inky blue that appears across all three platters. “Depending on how thick you layer it and how the light interacts, it can be transformative,” she explains. The choice of colour traces back to Baoulé cloths she encountered in Africa, another tradition of handwoven textiles that left a lasting impression. Her new London studio has, in turn, become a kind of homage. “I’ve collected quite a few now, and they hang all around me,” she says. “So when I’m working, I’m surrounded by these colours and this craft.”

While this environment supports her creativity, Hannah is looking forward to a break from the solitary aspect of making and accessing more tangible support through the New Makers programme. “Being an artist working on your own can be quite nerve‑wracking,” she says. “You never really know if you're doing things right, so it’ll be nice to have someone to just check in with and share my ideas. It’s really exciting.”

Shop our New Makers 2026 collection.

Words by Bébhinn Campbell.

Photography by Aloha Bonser-Shaw.