Michele Quan Painted Planters and Other Haute-Hippie Garden Designs

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Michele Quan adorns her ceramics with images relating to the wonder and mysteries of the universe. “Reading books on Eastern thought and practices is the root inspiration of my work,” she tells us. “Clay can transform a moment or idea into stone.

Michele talks about the symbolic meaning of shapes, the energy of colors, and wanting her practice to be about “honoring the things we love”—but quickly adds “I hope I don’t sound like a woo woo; I’m pretty much an irreverent realist.”

Long known for her stoneware temple bells and disc curtains—leading her work to be dubbed “haute hippie”— Michele has turned to making practical objects of late. Since relocating her studio from Brooklyn to upstate NY, in 2020, she’s created a collection of garden-related pieces: planters, hanging pots, vases, and bird feeders. There are curious and beautiful new indoor-outdoor sculptures, too.

Photography by Bobby Fisher, courtesy of Michele Quan (@michelequanstudio).

All of Michele&#8\2\17;s stoneware planters are wheel-thrown and hand-painted with extraordinary care in her Saugerties, NY, workshop. Each has a drainage hole and comes with a catch plate. This is the Prism/Crescent Yellow Planter: It has a rainbow prism and star on one side (as shown in Michele&#8\2\17;s backyard) and white crescent moon and yellow circle on the other; available in three sizes starting at \$465. — Above: All of Michele’s stoneware planters are wheel-thrown and hand-painted with extraordinary care in her Saugerties, NY, workshop. Each has a drainage hole and comes with a catch plate. This is the Prism/Crescent Yellow Planter: It has a rainbow prism and star on one side (as shown in Michele’s backyard) and white crescent moon and yellow circle on the other; available in three sizes starting at $465.

N.B.: Much of Michele’s work is ready to ship, but some of it, such as this piece labeled pre-order on her site, is custom made and can take up to 16 weeks.

&#8\2\20;For this planter collection I focused the images on: The Sky (wonder, awe, and expansiveness), Energy (vibration, movement both opposing and in relationship), The Mountain (ground, stability, and reaching),&#8\2\2\1; writes Michele. Domino Indigo—&#8\2\2\1;symbolizing the moon cycle from dark new moon to bright full moon&#8\2\2\1;—comes in four sizes starting at \$\245. — Above: “For this planter collection I focused the images on: The Sky (wonder, awe, and expansiveness), Energy (vibration, movement both opposing and in relationship), The Mountain (ground, stability, and reaching),” writes Michele. Domino Indigo—”symbolizing the moon cycle from dark new moon to bright full moon”—comes in four sizes starting at $245.

The Marigold &. Sun Planter comes in four sizes starting at \$\245. — Above: The Marigold &. Sun Planter comes in four sizes starting at $245.

“The planters are all thrown on the wheel in a custom groggy clay body that actually fires to a toasty brown,” explains Michele. “All of my work is covered multiple times with a white clay based material that fires to a matte, slightly crackly surface. And in the gas reduction firing, the iron in the clay deepens creating a lot of variation and depth to the white.”