Welcome to the extraordinary work of ceramic artist Megan Bogonovich and her new collection Underwater World created exclusively for The Shop Floor Project.

Inspired by the ‘structure and chaos in nature’, Megan Bogonovich is compelled to explore the way living things develop and grow. She says she is interested in ’why there is so much repetition in nature’ and playing with repetition of form is a running theme throughout her work. Megan’s intricate porcelain sculptures are created using an archive of handmade moulds, evolving into ever-changing clusters, each piece a unique species.

Underwater World evokes the coral reefs of our imagination, colonies of coral polyps held together by porcelain slip instead of calcium carbonate. Glazed in a multicoloured arrangement of colour and pattern with highlights of gold lustre, painted onto delicate lace-like branches, blooms, tentacles and feeding polyps.

Megan Bogonovich’s studio is a special place. Located in her back garden, an area of dense forest in Vermont, New England, it nestles like a workshop in a fairy tale; windows glowing out in the depth of winter, kilns burning during the night, Yoko the Siamese cat strolling over for a visit. It’s a hive of activity all year round where Megan carries out her daily routine:

“I start with the same daily podcast most mornings, I listen while I mostly clean and organise. Sometimes I need to potter in the space for a bit to get into the right frame of mind. In the winter I wear hat-scarves and multiple layers, it gets so cold that I can’t sit down and need to move around until the heat kicks in. Sometimes I see deer out of my window or mink.”

But when she does begin her work it is an intricate web of stages which requires solitude and concentration; making moulds, casting parts, assembling parts, making glaze, drying, glazing, firing. In fact the process is so layered and intricate that the finished pieces may have been fired up to six times.

Megan surrounded by plaster moulds in her Vermont studio

Like tempting goodies in a sweet shop, Megan begins a new piece by selecting from an archive of hundreds of moulds. These precious moulds are all made by the artist by sculpting the original components in clay and then casting them in plaster - an ancient technique.

Testing our glazes, trays of fragment forms can be found all over Megan's studio

Megan describes her pieces as “composition studies”, using a combination of moulded forms and hand-built elements, each piece is a unique balancing act that requires artistic judgement, intuition and the skill of a ceramicist to perfect.

And perfect she has, with an extraordinary collection of unique porcelain sculptures Megan Bogonovich’s work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United States. We are excited to now be the exclusive online gallery for her sculptural work.

Create your very own coral reef along a side board or mantle-piece, mix them with antique natural finds such as shellls, coral, sea fans.