It’s basically our job here at Sight Unseen to follow the career trajectory of up-and-coming designers, and in our professional capacity, we’ve come to realize that most ceramicists follow a certain path: First come the smalls, like cups and mugs and plates and vases. The next step is usually lamps — think of Natalie Weinberger‘s pleated clay shades, Workaday Handmade‘s listing table lamps, and BZIPPY‘s pyramid-shaped bases. Today, we’re featuring one of the first lamps by Belgium-based Harvey Bouterse, who we’ve written about before and who has also begun working, in his vases, with a kind of geometric shard vernacular.

The lamp is a wonder of compact cuteness, and yet at the same time extremely chic —  a stout, neutral-colored clay base with a tightly strung, gently sloped rope shade. The lamp and other works here were created for a shared summer exhibition at Atelier Perignem in Brussels, with Bouterse’s frequent collaborator Wouter Hoste and artist Katleen Vinck. Now, of course, the third step in a ceramicist’s career is typically furniture — perhaps that’s something we can anticipate for summer 2021?