Handcrafted Pottery Illustrates Circular Stories Inspired by Our Inner Lives

There are many ways to tell a story—ways that don’t involve pen and paper. Illus­tra­tor Daphne Christo­forou fol­lows an ancient tra­di­tion of adorn­ing hand­craft­ed pot­tery with nar­ra­tive imagery. Her tall, bul­bous vas­es and planter bowls show­case cir­cu­lar tales of dreams and self-reflec­tion, includ­ing the ever-pop­u­lar thought of, “How did I get here?”

“[Daphne] is fas­ci­nat­ed by ancient ori­en­tal art­work such as Hin­du imagery, Tibetan iconog­ra­phy, and Indi­an Minia­ture paint­ing,” her web­site says. “Daphne is drawn to the visu­al rich­ness, naiveté and his­tor­i­cal con­text of this imagery, but most impor­tant­ly to its depth of mean­ing and link with east­ern phi­los­o­phy and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty.” With her exquis­ite linework and con­tem­po­rary fig­ures, she cre­ates a wel­come twist on convention.

Daphne sells her work—including weav­ings, silk scarves, and greet­ing cards—on Etsy. You can also find her on Insta­gram.