8 hours with Chentar Jessada Boonin in Paris
On a bright summer day, we visited Chentar at his ceramic studio, Slow Potter, in Paris, a space nestled in a part of the city that has held a long, illustrious history of artisanal craft since the fifteenth century.
SS24 surfer t - grey chine / AW24 tapered - indigo
We met Chentar as he was in the process of wedging clay that he would eventually throw on the wheel. Chentar discovered ceramics after apprenticing at a traditional workshop in Chiang Mai, after which he relocated to Paris to train at the Atelier Chemins de la Céramique.
SS24 stand collar shirt - ink / SS24 surfer t - grey chine / AW24 tapered - indigo
He organizes his handmade work in small sets, each one centered on a color, either from the natural coloration of fired clay and/or from enamel glazes that he conducts himself with various minerals and oxides.
SS24 l.a. overshirt - indigo / SS24 kahala shirt - white / AW24 204 baggy - indigo
Within each set, the vessels take on shapes that play with curves and edges. Smooth surfaces that bulge elegantly down the sides of a vase meet at sharp edges of the vessel’s shoulder and lip. Elevated platters are constructed from wide-brimmed plates that dramatically sit atop a truncated cone. His vessel shapes play with the dichotomies, the soft and the hard, the smooth and the coarse, the gradual and the abrupt.
SS24 kahala shirt - white / AW24 204 baggy - indigo
After finishing at the wheel, Chentar needs to allow his wet clay vessels to dry, a process that could take anywhere between two to four weeks. In the meantime, he leads us into the courtyard where he takes a break to water his plants and cut summer roses that he may arrange in one of his vases.
SS24 l.a. overshirt - indigo / SS24 kahala shirt - white / AW24 204 baggy - indigo
