Meet the Maker: Floralia - In conversation with Daniel Smyth

Image: Daniel Smyth

Main image: Daniel Smyth

In honour of our summer craft and design showcase Floralia, we’ve been getting to know the makers behind the work. We were thrilled to catch up with Manchester based ceramicist Daniel Smyth.

Daniel is a skilled potter known for creating simple yet striking pottery inspired by global ceramic traditions, with a particular reverence for East Asian techniques and aesthetics.

Through meticulous craftsmanship, he explores the delicate interplay between form and function, producing pieces that are both visually compelling and practically refined. His creations are quiet and minimal with a contemporary elegance.

For Floralia, Daniel has included a series of vases in his distinct and understated style.

Image: Daniel Smyth

What inspires your work? 

What motivates me and drives me to action in my work is a fascination with clay and ceramic materials, it can have so many qualities and endless possibilities in form and finish.

Tell us a bit more about the inspiration for the pieces you have included in the Floralia showcase.

I’m inspired by a real breadth of practices and artists, but East Asian ceramics have a strong influence on my work, not always in a direct way, but it seeps in the subconscious maybe. There is a sensibility to many revered Japanese, Chinese and Korean ceramics that really captures my attention, pots can have a strong presence and character.

Tell us a bit more about your practice.

I work primarily on the wheel, often in production, reproducing my own designs but regularly exploring new forms. It is a creative itch that I can’t help but scratch. To keep reinventing and experimenting keeps the passion for my craft alive.

Describe your workspace.

I work in an old cotton mill along the canal in North Manchester called Wellington House. The collection of studios where I have my workshop is called Wellington Studios, it is run by a lovely couple called Sean and Felicity. There is generous space and I have two large windows with a view from the second floor, I have an electric kiln where I fire all my work. 

Who has influenced & inspired you?

So many people have inspired me. Initially observing a potter at my uni (Camberwell College of Arts), called Yuta Segawa; watching his dedication, discipline and work ethic was something I hadn’t come across before at University, and it gave me a good example of the effort needed to do to begin mastering my craft. 

Ian Godfrey, is also a potter who I greatly admire, although my work is very different I love the consciously naive, playful and timeless quality to his pots, they have a beautiful transcendence to them.

Potters who have influenced me are my tutors from my time studying ceramics in Thomastown, Kilkenny and my peers. Two contemporary potters that influence my work are Akira Satake based in Florida and Koichiro Isezaki based in Bizen, Japan.

What is your favourite piece or design you have made?

I designed the medium bud vase for Floralia specifically. The form can be decorative in it’s own right, but it is a quiet pot. I believe there is a sacredness to simplicity, and subtleness can say as much as loudness, if you are sensitively attuned. 

My favourite pots in particular are some of the wood-fired pieces. I took part in a wood-firing in Derbyshire with some other local potters. wood-fired results can be unpredictable and if you’re lucky you can be blessed with some gifts from the flames and ash, with blushed areas and golden or iridescent shiny areas. This kind of process reminds me why I love making pots.