Natural Design

A local ceramicist evokes patterns from nature, creating elegant works that celebrate surprise and imperfection.

Text by
Kathleen Wong
Images by
Chris Rohrer
Translation by
Mutsumi Matsunobu

For many artists, the natural world is a powerful source of inspiration. But rather than panoramas of Hawai‘i’s pristine beaches or mystical forests, O‘ahu ceramicist Christopher Edwards takes a different approach: He zooms in. For Edwards, it’s the intricate details that feed his creative soul, whether it’s the prickly cone of a cycad, the holes in a broken piece of coral, or a plant’s tendrils wrapped around a trailhead sign. While beachgoers may simply admire an ‘opihi shell, Edwards studies the irregularities of its mottled ribs and grooves. “I’m sort of a nature nerd, both in flora and fauna,” he says. “I don’t see how anyone could not be inspired by this place.”

Edwards’ handmade sculptures are meticulous manipulations of the tessellations, fractals, and radial symmetry he encounters when out hiking, hunting, or snorkeling. Equipped with a magnifying glass and camera, he investigates his findings with a scrutinizing eye. “It’s a particular quality to natural objects—repetition with variation,” he says. A computer-rendered pattern will be perfect, but it won’t have, as Edwards puts it, a “life force.”

A graphic designer by trade, Edwards never intended to become an artist. In search of a new hobby, he signed up for an adult ceramics class at Windward Community College. It was love at first mold. “I couldn’t stop, and pretty soon, it was all I wanted to do,” he says. Drawn to the infinite possibilities of clay, he especially enjoyed the medium’s tactility and pliability. “It’s essentially playing with mud,” he says. “Clay itself is totally formless, it can become whatever you want it to become.” After many years spent “hunched over a computer” for work, he decided to pursue ceramics full time.

A graphic designer by trade, ceramic artist Christopher Edwards is continually intrigued by the intricate designs found in nature.

Edwards’ artistic path further took shape upon discovering a book by the 19th-century German zoologist and naturalist Ernst Haeckel. Published during a time when microscopes were just coming into use, the book featured Haeckel’s detailed, eye-catching illustrations of the diatoms and other single-celled creatures he saw under the lens of the apparatus.

In a sense, Edwards’ sculptures are a three-dimensional take on Haeckel’s work. Instead of producing an exact replica of a natural object, Edwards puts a unique spin on its complexities. This method is seen in “Wana Halekulani,” the 125 palm-sized wana, or sea urchins, that he crafted for Halekulani’s guest rooms. Instead of drafting detailed preliminary sketches for the stoneware project, Edwards simply dove right in, rolling out lumps of clay and laying them over rotund molds. After several hours of drying, when the clay reached his desired level of firmness, Edwards spent hours using various hand-sharpened sticks to create elegant, radial motifs.

“I almost never carve—it doesn’t look natural,” he says, striving instead for a distinctive raw quality using piercing, poking, and stamping tools. According to Edwards, varying the pressure and angle, as well as changing positions and moving around the piece, affords his pattern work a complexity that can’t be achieved from carving alone.

Mounted on a wall of the lobby at Halepuna Waikiki are 14 oversized ‘opihi shells that Edwards built by hand from iron and cobalt oxides. “‘Opihi forms are these amazing things,” Edwards says, explaining how he molded ribs and pierced holes in the radial grooves of each conical shell and applied slices of gold luster for a subtle touch of sophistication.

Noticing the ‘opihi’s ability to cling onto a vertical rock surface, Edwards quickly recognized how they could seamlessly translate into a wall art installation. “When you really start looking, it’s just incredible beauty everywhere,” he says. “Even the tiniest objects.”

Edwards pierces, pokes, and stamps his art with hand-made tools rather than relying on carving. Doing so creates a certain “rawness,” he explains.
At his open studio beneath his 1920s plantation home in Nu‘uanu, the birdsong and nearby flowing stream often put Edwards in a meditative state when working.