Marlies Huybs
Marlies Huybs is a Belgian designer whose handmade objects explore the expressive possibilities of material, colour and texture. Working primarily with ceramics, she creates vessels, sculptures and wall pieces through an intuitive approach that leaves room for discovery. Her forms develop gradually, retaining irregular surfaces and marks that give each work its individual character. There is a personal quality to her practice, shaped by a willingness to experiment and follow her own sensibility. Her objects invite close attention to the physical qualities of clay and the unexpected forms that emerge through working with it.
THE PROCESS
Marlies’s process begins with the tactile pleasure of working with soft clay. She is drawn to its vulnerability and responsiveness, allowing the material to guide a gradual exploration of form. For her, a particularly meaningful moment occurs when intuition takes over and making becomes absorbing in itself, without needing to know exactly where it will lead. This openness gives each piece space to develop beyond its initial direction.
Experimentation is central to this approach. Marlies describes unsuccessful attempts as an inevitable part of trying new things, with each discovery making the uncertainty worthwhile. Colour, texture and shape develop together, while irregularities remain integral to the finished object. The marks and variations in her work give it a distinct identity, preserving the particular decisions and discoveries made along the way.
Firing introduces another stage of transformation. Many of her sculptures and vessels are fired to 1,250°C, while selected works, including the Wai Vessels Āra, undergo outdoor pottery firing. These different approaches sit within a practice that values exploration as much as completion. Across intimate vessels, sculptural objects and wall pieces, Marlies returns to the possibilities of material and the freedom of working intuitively. Each finished work holds something of that experience: an individual expression of colour, surface and form that could only emerge through the act of making.
For available works, commissions or further information, we welcome your enquiry. We would be pleased to share a selection of pieces and discuss their place in your collection or interior project.