Orla O’Rourke

Orla O’Rourke is a ceramicist based in Shanagarry Studio, Cork. Orla makes all her pottery exclusively in her studio, and her work is unique, functional and beautiful.

Inspired by her love of nature, Orla’s work is entirely handmade from rolling the clay, to designing and firing it, all by hand. The final stages of decoration and glazing are also done by hand in the traditional manner.

Orla also includes hessian sack cloth fabric into her hand built ceramics. Each piece has the hessian fabric rolled into the clay, leaving behind its distinct design. The designed clay is then formed by Orla to create a sack like container. These “sacks” are a functional, contemporary and stylish home-ware collection of tea bag and kitchen utensil holders.

Soft Bisque is a colour inspired by Orla’s native Cork, bringing the surrounding nature to life in her craft.