Lena Harms

Lena Harms creates sculptural vessels and cups that blur the line between function and visual art. Using only coil and slab techniques, her surfaces are built layer by layer—painted with clay slips and inlays rather than glaze—celebrating the earthiness and raw beauty of clay itself.

Short Bio

  • Born in Munich, Germany (1988)
  • Background in product design
  • Working with clay since 2015

“Even my tea and coffee cups become a work of art in their own right—almost like a painting. I want the clay to remain perceptible as a natural material and to highlight its raw beauty.”

Lena Harms

About Lena Harms (Munich, Germany)

Lena Harms approaches clay as both a tactile and emotional material. With a background in product design, she brings form and structure into dialogue with surface and story. She works entirely by hand—no wheel, no glaze—using coil and slab construction to shape each vessel with intention and slowness.

Her work often takes the form of tea and coffee cups, yet they exist almost like paintings—layered with slip-painted lines, inlays, and abstract patterns. The surfaces are raw but considered, revealing the subtle colors and textures of clay itself.

Influenced by natural landscapes, earthy contrasts, and traditional crafts from many cultures, Lena’s pieces reflect a personal yearning—for a life more grounded, more instinctive, and in deeper harmony with the rhythms of the natural world.