The creative drive has always been the same: to tell stories, whether through animation, jewellery or now objects. For me, storytelling is an emotional form of beauty.

The home has also always been a fascination. I’m a collector and a maximalist of sorts, so after many years in jewellery, it felt natural to explore that interest through my own work. It was a chance to step outside the familiar and create on a different scale, for a different purpose. There’s something exhilarating about bringing what you know into a world you’ve long loved, while learning and challenging yourself in new ways.

Every design starts with a question: what does it want to say? The personality grows from that.

With BUDDY, the question was what a planter could do beyond looking aesthetically pleasing and holding a plant. A plant is a living thing in your home. You care for it, feed it and grow attached to it. Giving the planter four little legs felt like a natural way to express that relationship, making it feel a little more like a creature sharing your home.

ALCHEMY began with noticing what happens when we light a candle: solid wax melts, becomes liquid and then vapour. There is something extraordinary in that familiar process, and in the way a small flame can transform a dark space. The holder is an invitation to notice transformation.

Both objects fulfil their function, but each brings an emotional layer to an everyday act. That is where their personality comes from, beyond how they look or what they do.

For me, the story comes first, but the object still has to fulfil its purpose. The question is how much you can change the way someone uses it, and whether that change adds something to the experience.

Take VITA, for example. It’s not a vase you can just throw flowers into. You have to guide the stems gently and think about their placement. It asks for more attention, but that becomes part of the pleasure: slowing down and taking care over an arrangement, a little like ikebana. It won’t suit every flower, and I’m comfortable with that.

VITA also challenges our view of beauty. A vase is usually there to display flowers at their best, but there is something compelling about what happens beyond that moment. As the petals fade and the stems bend, a different kind of beauty emerges. The vase invites us to stay curious and appreciate that stage too.

Our first collection is made in earthenware ceramic. It’s a material that has been part of our human experience for thousands of years, and there was something grounding and poetic about starting with earth. Finding the right people to work with also played a part. There was a natural connection with our partners, which made it feel like the right place to begin. HOUBI will expand into other materials, but ceramics will always remain an important part of what we do. It’s where our story begins.

There are a lot of beautiful things out there, and I’m drawn to them myself. I don’t think every object has to offer something beyond beauty or function.

But with HOUBI, I want to explore what else an object can bring to our lives. Can it make us pause, notice something differently or find pleasure in an action we usually take for granted? How an object looks is part of that, but so is what happens when we use it.

With only a few pieces in the first collection, each one has a big role in defining HOUBI.

The starting point was familiar objects with the potential to make us see or experience something differently. From there, it was about how the pieces worked together. Each needed its own character, without taking the whole collection too far in one direction. The connection between them had to come through the stories they tell and the sense of wonder they bring to the everyday.

Yes, I can see both becoming part of HOUBI. What matters most to me is tactility: the desire to touch a form or a colour. In the first collection, that came through smooth, rounded shapes. Now I’m experimenting with the opposite: sharper forms and a sense of danger. I’m interested in that tension, in something that looks a little threatening but still makes you want to reach out and touch it.