As part of London Craft Week, Henry Holland is exhibiting a collection of left-field, hand-made ceramic pieces in the Paul Smith’s West London showroom.

This exhibit melds together the many elements of Henry’s exploration of craft including our rug collaboration which launched last year, featuring a series of contemporary, 90s rave inspired hand-made rugs.

The exhibit itself ‘Nobody Cares How Good You Used To Be’, celebrates colour, craft and Henry’s long standing friendship with Paul Smith, built on a mutual respect and admiration of each other's work.

The entire space is enriched with a balanced display of craft mediums and materials taking shape in Henry’s vibrant collection on ceramics, delicately embroidered lamp shades and a mixture of tufted and hand knotted rugs. You can spot the bold, graphic rugs from our collaboration with Henry melting down the exhibit walls.

There’s a beautiful language between the exhibited pieces and how they interact with the surrounding textiles which really evokes the celebration of fine craftsmanship.

In celebration of this new ceramic collection drop (without the smash), we’ve launched new colourways in a few of the rugs from our collaboration. Henry selected a few accents from the ceramics and shaped them into some the 4AM smiling face in cream and green, Melting Runner and the 6AM Melt. Each are either hand knotted or tufted using 100% hand-dyed wool.

Process is totally at the heart of the creation of this collection, Henry has translated the Japanese technique of Nerikomi (which involves stacking and rolling coloured clay) and let this transpire into rug form. The visual nature of the moulding of colours to create a melting masterpiece really comes through in both rug and ceramic.

The origination of the ceramics is contextualised within the space through a few details from Henry’s Hackney-based studio. A hardy wooden table stained with paint and clay marks stands, fittingly, with ceramic pots sat elegantly on top. A total textural fusion. These elements really shine a light on Henry’s journey as a ceramicist along with longstanding love for form and function.

Henry’s signature style has been elevated through the explorations of more techniques as a result of, as henry explains, a feeling of freedom granted by Paul Smith. You can really see how Henry ran wild with his incorporation of colour, especially in the pieces that include mis-match, patchwork-esq combinations.

There’s something really satisfying about its visual language, we’d put it down to the fact that contemporary design has been guided by craft techniques that have been around for thousands of years. It’s exactly this contrast that delivers that tactile yet curated feeling through and through.