Photo by Lena Nicholson
About
Milja Bannwart is a Finnish-Swiss ceramic artist and industrial designer based in Brooklyn. Her work spans ceramics, product design, packaging, and branding. Born and raised in Berlin, she moved to New York in 1998. After nearly two decades working as a product and packaging designer in New York City, she returned to her passion for clay and established her Brooklyn studio Vuono, in 2023. Drawing from her Finnish heritage and craft tradition, her work brings together a considered design language and refined craftsmanship.
Process
Every piece is handmade in porcelain at our Brooklyn studio, in limited series. A design begins as a sketch, then takes shape as a full-scale prototype, carved and refined by hand. From the finished prototype, a plaster mold is made for slip casting. Bespoke color hues are achieved by blending pigments into the porcelain, with surfaces often left unglazed to reveal the fine texture of the material. Each piece has subtle variations, inherent to the process.
