Name of finalist: Andile Dyalvane
Country/region of residence: South Africa
Name of work: 'Cornish Wall'
Category: ceramics
Materials: glazed stoneware clay

Hand-built using red earthenware coils, this vessel has strong textures that reveal the process of making, including torn ceramic slabs and lines brushed on with a handmade bonsai brush. Carrying a beautiful sense of movement, the work pays homage to both African and British pottery, drawing on Xhosa culture from South Africa and its influence on studio pottery through the work of Bernard Leach. Created during a residency in Cornwall in 2019, the work speaks of a changing natural landscape, of eroding riverbed walls in South Africa and the disappearing coastline around St Ives.

Name of finalist: Annika Jarring
Country/region of entry: Sweden
Name of work: 'Line'
Category: glass
Materials: glass, silicone

Merging architectural structure with the form of a classical vase, Jarring has used a daring non-traditional glass making technique she has developed to create this sculptural piece. Taking inspiration from Han dynasty jade burial suits, 392 small narrow rectangular panels of clear glass have been strung together using bands of black silicone to create a three-dimensional object using flat glass. The overlapping black lines of the silicone create a sense of kinetic motion and add strength to the structure of the glass to create an object that is both lightweight and strong, yet visually fragile.

Name of finalist: Awaré
Country/region of entry: France
Name of work: 'Strata'
Category: textiles
Materials: silk pongee, ash tree wood

Exploring the geological phenomena that regulate our planet and its connection to humanity throughout time, Awaré has created a carved wooden receptacle and encased it with thin silk threads. The thread is bonded to the wood with a hot iron and brushed with ink to create a gradient that relates to the layers of the earth from across geological periods.

Name of finalist: Beate Leonards
Country/region of entry: Germany
Name of work: 'Vase'
Category: metal
Materials: tombac (gilding metal)

Forged from tombac (a brass alloy containing 85% copper, 15% zinc) that has been mounted from seven asymmetric rings, hammered, stacked and soldered together, the vase has then been carefully polished and patinated. The technique requires a mastery of the material, made even more skilled by the form’s partial asymmetry. The composition lends the work a sense of optical movement and shifting equilibrium.

Name of finalist: Blast Studio
Country/region of entry: United Kingdom
Name of work: 'Blue Tree'
Category: other
Materials: used coffee cups

A symbolic statement on the issue of sustainability, this man-made tree explores humanity’s relationship with nature and our role in the ecosystem. Each of the tree’s four modules has been 3D printed using pulp from used takeaway coffee cups. The pulp has been dyed indigo, printed and sculpted, then stacked to create a column structure with nooks and crevasses, capable of supporting and sheltering living organisms and plants.

Name of finalist: Chikuunsai Tanabe
Country/region of entry: Japan
Name of work: 'Connection'
Category: Other
Materials: bamboo rattan

Perfect proportions and exceptional craftsmanship come together in this basket to create a piece that is both beautiful and in harmony. A contemporary form that shows an incredible mastery of traditional Japanese bamboo basketry, its interlocking loops are formed using bunch knitting. This poetic work expresses a connection between people and nature and links an ancestral material and technique to the present day.

Name of finalist: Dahye jeong
Country/region of entry: Republic of Korea
Name of work: 'A Time of Sincerity'
Category: textiles
Materials: horsehair

Delicate yet solid, this basket is woven out of thin horsehair to create a flexible geometric design that transposes a 500-year-old Korean Joseon dynasty technique traditionally used in Sabanggwan hat making, and combines it with an ancient earthenware form. Exploiting the natural elasticity of the horsehair fibre, it has been threaded onto a needle and woven into loops to create a work that expresses both the robustness and beauty of life.

Name of finalist: David Clarke
Country/region of entry: United Kingdom
Name of work: 'Stash'
Category: metal
Materials: silver plate, pewter and steel

Redundant antique candelabras and candlesticks have been repurposed to create a series of three majestic and intriguing silverware compositions. Confounding the expectations of the viewer, each is crowned with a pair of hand-finished upturned pewter bowls that act as lids. The series reflects on sustainability, abundance and the joy of social gatherings.

Name of finalist: Domingos Tótora
Country/region of entry: Brazil
Name of work: 'Âmago Sculpture'
Category: other
Materials: recycled cardboard with natural earth pigment

This sculptural piece demonstrates a long-term commitment to sustainability and is deeply rooted in the Tótora‘s own community in Brazil, harking back to a local tradition of building houses using mud and water. The vessel has been created using a new material of Tótora’s own invention which he developed by combining discarded cardboard waste with water to create a pulp that is then dried under the sun. The earthy tones and rough texture of the vessel’s surface lends the piece an ambiguity and tactility that is hard to pinpoint, somewhere between cork, wood and ceramic.

Name of finalist: Eleanor Lakelin
Country/region of entry: United Kingdom
Name of work: 'The Landscape of Memory'
Category: wood
Materials: sequoia wood, iron solution

Created from hollowed-out burred British sequoia, this vessel has been sandblasted to reveal the denser winter wood and flashes of yellow sapwood from beneath lighter summerwood. Carved off the lathe, Lakelin has followed the contours of the grain to create a deep undulating form with patches of matt and glossy surface that highlights the patterning of the wood. The vessel has been finished with a painted iron solution to evoke the Welsh landscape, where the rivers run brown with iron-ore.

Name of finalist: Fernando Casasempere
Country/region of residence: Chile
Name of work: 'Red Folded Organic Form'
Category: ceramics
Materials: stoneware and minerals

This single ceramic form is created using a bespoke clay mix, comprised of stoneware and discarded materials from Chilean copper mining, lending the work its distinctive texture and rich, deep colour that speaks to a deep-rooted fascination with geology. Using hand-built coiling, an ancient technique that requires fine control, Casasempere has used the weight of his body to press convex shapes into the vessel. This balance between slump and collapse has been carefully exploited taking the natural qualities of clay to the extremes of its possibilities, a metaphor for humanity’s indelible imprint on the earth.

Name of finalist: Fredrik Nielsen
Country/region of entry: Sweden
Name of work: 'Mixed Emotions', ‘Stick It Together Silver’ and ‘You’re Not the Only One’
Category: glass
Materials: glass

Taking multiple influences as its starting point, including graffiti, pop-music and the way in which painters layer a canvas, the three glass works in this series have been blown, cast and fired multiple times to create three large-scale globular works. Each firing risks the work’s destruction, especially at this scale, and Nielsen's contemporary approach pushes the craft of glass making into a new direction that is relevant to today.

Name of finalist: Julia Obermaier
Country/region of entry: Germany
Name of work: 'Verborgen'
Category: jewellery
Materials: rock crystal, resin, pigment, stainless steel

Unlike in conventional jewellery pieces where the stone compliments the precious metals that form the structural support, in this piece gemstones have been used to create the entire brooch. Thin slices of coloured gemstones fragments have been layered and overlapped to create sections of contrasting opacity and joined together using coloured resin.

Name of finalist: Junsu Kim
Country/region of entry: Republic of Korea
Name of work: 'Sense of Forest'
Category: leather
Materials: vegetable tanned leather

Demonstrating an exceptional understanding of the characteristics of raw leather, tiny strips have been freehand coiled, a labour-intensive technique traditionally used on ceramics, to build a tactile vessel that appears effortless and elegant. Created without the use of a mould, the variation in width of the strips creates a layered surface with different shades that evokes the sensation.

Name of finalist: Kate Malone
Country/region of entry: United Kingdom
Name of work: 'Magma Interrupted'
Category: ceramics
Materials: crystalline-glazed stoneware

This powerful and dynamic stoneware work combines geometric forms to create an individual piece that is sculpturally strong in and of itself. Each individual form has been carefully balanced and fired as one whole, and the fantastic scale is countered by a delicate crystalline glaze. The work shows a passionate and technical understanding of the exacting alchemy needed to produce these crystals and an inherent knowledge of how clay behaves at all stages of the creation process.

Name of finalist: Konrad Koppold
Country/region of entry: Germany
Name of work: 'Oak Vessel'
Category: wood
Materials: oak wood

This vessel’s archaic form speaks to the tradition of German Kunsthandwerk and plays with asymmetry, turning on four shifted and inclined axes to introduce geometry into natural form. Guided by the grain and characteristics of the wood from the root section of a mature tree, the vessel is ebonised using the iron-staining technique to produce a deepening of the colour, finely sanded inside to produce a smooth surface and brushed outside to reveal the living structure of the wood.

Name of finalist: Lu Bin
Country/region of entry: Mainland China
Name of work: 'Vases 1997'
Category: ceramics
Materials: stoneware

Finely crafted and expertly executed, this installation combines 18 individual pieces created using the traditional Yixing clay slab technique. The work shows both an enjoyment and mastery of the ceramic process and the individual pieces sit in conversational dialogue. A variation in the application of glazed finishes creates a range of beautiful soft tones that punctuate the final firing.

Name of finalist: Madoda Fani
Country/region of entry: South Africa
Name of work: 'iZembe' (An Axe)
Category: ceramics
Materials: terracotta

Using locally sourced clay and employing traditional techniques indigenous to Southern Africa including hand-coiling, burnishing and smoke-firing, this vessel forms part of Fani’s iQweqwe series which translates from isiXhosa as ‘crust’. Referencing insect exoskeletons, a recurrent motif in Fani’s work, the vessel’s contours are accentuated by a concentric repetitive pattern and finished with detailed markings and studded protrusions to create a piece that is both timeless and futuristic. After a bisque firing, the vessel is smoke fired giving it a uniform black colour.

Name of finalist: Marianne Huotari
Country/region of entry: Finland
Name of work: 'Ananasakäämä'
Category: ceramics
Materials: ceramics, metal

Referencing traditional Finnish ryijy tapestries, Huotari has updated the artform by using ceramics in the place of woollen yarn. Hand forming each tiny fragment of clay, they are glazed and fired to create thousands of ceramic pieces which are then handsewn onto a metal base. The overlapping pieces in a variety of sizes and shapes resemble the scales of a fish, creating a delicate and tactile work with vibrant colour combinations that complement its form and texture beautifully.

Name of finalist: Mayumi Onagi
Country/region of entry: Japan
Name of work: 'Cosmos'
Category: lacquer
Materials: lacquer, soil, linen, rice glue, wood

Resembling a large seed, this large-scale lacquer work expresses the chain of life from ancient times into the future and the great power that supports it. The work is divided into two parts, the upper part has been shaped using a traditional kanshitsu modelling technique, in which linen is hardened with soil and lacquer. Over a period of six months, the linen has been layered and shaved back to create a stratum-like texture on the surface and then rubbed and polished. The lower part is made from katsura wood, the surface has been carved to express the flow of water.

Name of finalist: Mel Douglas
Country/region of entry: Australia
Name of work: 'Deviation'
Category: glass
Materials: kiln formed, cold-worked engraved glass

Displaying exceptional precision, the glass has been cut and kiln formed into two distinct forms that are then cold worked, hand sanded and positioned so that they partially overlap. Finished with hand engraving, Douglas has etched lines onto the surface of the glass to explore the liminal space between two-dimensional drawing and forming three-dimensional objects to create a work that gives the illusion of depth.

Name of finalist: Minwook Kim
Country/region of entry: Republic of Korea
Name of work: 'Instinctive'
Category: wood
Materials: korean oak, copper

Created using wet green wood, the series utilises the natural expansions and contractions of the material as it dries. Carved using a wood turning lathe, these wafer-thin bowls are then clamped and stapled with copper, a nod to the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, and treated with water to encourage the surface to become wavy and distorted. Left dry and unoiled, one is charred, the second dyed, the third washed and the final one is left unfinished to showcase the natural colours of the wood.

Name of finalist: Myungtaek Jung
Country/region of entry: Republic of Korea
Name of work: 'Dumbung-jucho'
Category: furniture
Materials: bronze, stainless steel, rivets, stone

Dumbung-jucho refers to a technical term in Korean architecture for creating foundations in which wooden columns are placed on flat cornerstones. For this piece of furniture, Jung has reinterpreted the cornerstone as support for sitting. Created in two parts, the first is cast in bronze and connected to a stainless-steel base using rivets and the second is a stool created from natural stone, ground flat to steady it and chamfered to reduce its weight.

Name of finalist: Pao Hui Kao
Country/region of entry: Taiwan Region
Name of work: 'Urushi Paper Pleats Bench'
Category: paper
Materials: paper, rice glue, urushi lacquer

This bench has pushed functionality to its extremes by experimenting with fragile rice paper to create a bench capable of supporting the weight of the sitter. Using urushi lacquer, traditionally used in Japanese woodwork and which has never before applied to this material, the paper has been coiled and then treated to strengthen it. The coils are then joined using rice glue to create a beautifully balanced piece that gives the illusion of a natural environment.

Name of finalist: Peter T. McCarthy
Country/region of entry: Cote d'Ivoire
Name of work: 'Étoffe de Gloire / Royal Kita With Red Stripes'
Category: textiles
Materials: sewn zippers

Hundreds of coloured zippers have been individually stitched together and then sewn into a large cloth which draws on the checked motif and method of construction typical of the traditional Kenté or Kita cloth made by the Akan peoples in West Africa. These zippers were part of a donation of unwanted sewing materials and the work speaks of dying local traditions in the wake of globalism.

Name of finalist: Sangwook Huh
Country/region of entry: Republic of Korea
Name of work: 'Vessel with Plantain Surface Decoration'
Category: ceramics
Materials: clay, white slip, silver lustre

Drawing on the ancient 14th century technique of buncheong, meaning to powder the surface, part of a rich ceramic tradition in Korea, this white slip brushed ceramic vessel has been assembled from two large bowls thrown on the wheel. The vessel’s surface is treated like a painting, first layered with slip and brushed with iron oxide to create a plantain pattern and then finished with a layer of silver – a modern juxtaposition against the historical white and blue. Inspired by the writings of Taejoon Lee, the piece evokes the exotic sensibility of a landscape and the layers of time.

Name of finalist: Soyun Jung
Country/region of entry: Republic of Korea
Name of work: 'Someone Is Praying for You'
Category: textiles
Materials: monofilament

Monofilament has been painstaking sewn onto sheets of water-soluble fabrics to create this monumental textile work. Jung has layered the thread to create the outlines of a delicate and ethereal landscape and then submerged the fabric in water, leaving only the threads behind. The threads create the three-dimensional depth and are assembled to form a serene monochrome composition.

Name of finalist: Trinidad Contreras
Country/region of entry: Spain
Name of work: 'Crypsis'
Category: jewellery
Materials: refractory, porcelain, tulle, silver, brass, steel, leather

Confounding the expectations of the viewer, the palate and materials chosen for this brooch are intended to create a sense of tactility that deceives the eye of the viewer. Contreras has created something that on first viewing appears to be a second skin and with further attention is revealed to be an ornamental piece of jewellery. Created from two elements made of porcelain, earthy stoneware and leather and wrapped with tulle that can be combined into one piece, the compositions are assembled in silver using traditional jewellery techniques.

Name of finalist: Vera Siemund
Country/region of entry: Germany
Name of work: 'Dornröschen' (Sleeping Beauty)
Category: jewellery
Materials: steel, silver, coral

Combining historical architectural motifs, including domes and pavilions and topped with ornamental crowns and blackberry thorns, this necklace has been created using hand-sawn steel. The material is a reference to the Berlin iron jewellery which became popular during the 19th century when precious metals were used to help fund the Napoleonic war. The elements are connected by a silver chain with a clasp made from coral roses set in silver.

Name of finalist: Yongjin Chung
Country/region of entry: Republic of Korea
Name of work: 'Wavy Inverted Bowl'
Category: metal
Materials: stainless steel

Taking inspiration from an ancient Korean proverb that has its roots in Confucianism and equates a person’s character to a vessel, this ambitious stainless steel bowl has been created using techniques that maintain the traditional qualities in craft yet introduces modern technology through the use of computer aided design. The steel has been laser cut and micro-welded to create a double-walled bowl that is almost immaculate in terms of technique. The material has been interpreted with finesse and simplicity with the hand polished finish retaining the quality of the surface, including scratches and small marks, which act as a metaphor for human life.