Signe Kløve is a Danish ceramicist from the northern part of Denmark. She is currently an apprentice to potter Simon Levin, in Pawnee, IL, U.S. Signe spend her first years with clay doing production throwing, working at different potteries in Denmark. Since starting her apprenticeship Signe has ventured into hand building and is now primarily making slab build pots. The slabs are inlayed with repeating patterns that reference fabric design, then later shaped into three dimensional usable objects.
Signe has assisted in the building of two train kilns and collaborated on the design and building of a wood fired soda kiln. As a defining part of the apprenticeship, Signe’s distinctive body of work has developed through multiple woodfirings and many iterations and has evolved into an intricate process of her own.
Artist Statement
I work with clay as a patterned fabric. First I impress repeating patterns into slabs or cubes of clay, then I inlay colored slip to create a multi-sided, workable material. By pushing, pulling, stretching, and darting, I form three-dimensional, usable objects.
I make elongated trays and cubes, where I’m interested in how pattern, texture, and silhouette shift as shapes are pressed into the clay. These works feel successful when pattern and silhouette align, and when the form reflects the gesture that created it.
In my slab based work I stretch and push the clay, being guided by the inlaid pattern and discovering how my forms can engage with and transform the pattern. Working this way, I experience a deeper sense of collaboration between myself, clay, and process.
Woodfiring enhances the qualities of distortion and change in my work. Ash deposits and color variations caused by flame moving through the kiln leave permanent marks on the pots, distorting them further away from symmetry and towards something more dynamic, unexpected and unrepeatable.
I make vessels for eating and drinking. I value playfulness over practicality and I like to challenge the user with pots that invite touch and exploration.
