Our Story
Morph & Mould is a ceramics studio in Brown Hill Creek, Adelaide, on the unceded lands of the Kaurna people. Founded by Deanna Wilson, a qualified industrial designer who turned her skills toward ceramics. Every piece is designed from the ground up: digitally modelled, prototyped, mould-made, and slip cast in porcelain by hand. Nothing here comes from a bought mould or an off-the-shelf shape. It's a two-person operation, one very enthusiastic pooch, and a lot of dust.
-
Deanna Wilson – Founder
Deanna is the designer, maker, and creative engine behind Morph & Mould. She might have become an artist but chose the more sensible path of industrial design instead. Turns out the two aren't that different when porcelain is involved. After working in digital manufacturing in Melbourne she brought those skills back to Adelaide and pointed them squarely at ceramics. With a slight obsession with getting proportions exactly right, she designs every piece from scratch, builds every mould by hand, and has been known to stare at a handle for an unreasonable amount of time before committing to it. Just a lot of CAD, plaster, and patience.
-
Max McQuillan – Founder
Max brings an analytical eye and a deep appreciation for the natural world to Morph & Mould. A closeted designer who might have become an architect if his father weren't one, he pursued science instead and spent a previous life as a soil scientist and ecologist. Now a freshly minted PhD in Landscape Architecture, he designs biodiverse urban landscapes when he isn't fulfilling his most important role: chief coffee cup tester. Every new design gets put through its paces before Deanna commits to a mould. He takes this very seriously.
-
Peppa – Head of PR
Completing the team is Peppa, also known as Goobie. This German Shepherd x Kelpie takes her role as Chief Happiness Officer very seriously, which mostly involves sleeping in inconvenient places and barking at possums. She infuses the studio with the kind of energy that makes the long casting days feel a little less long.
The Process
The brief is always the same: organic in form, precise in execution, warm in the hand. Something that feels like it could only exist as it is. Getting there takes months of iteration, failed prototypes, proportions that refuse to resolve. Until they do.
Ideas move through digital modelling into 3D printed prototypes, worked until something shifts and the form works. Then a plaster mould is made by hand, porcelain slip poured and released, trimmed and finished. Fired twice to cone 10, glazed on the inside and the rim, the exterior is intentionally left raw.
When it's right, it looks simple.
The work sits closer to a designed object than studio pottery. It is considered, resolved, and made to last.
We give a damn
We give a damn. We're a small studio, and we've never thought that was a reason not to care.
Our studio is built from reclaimed materials and runs with no power and no running tap. Firing and 3D printing happen at home.
Clay scraps and offcuts go back into new slip, and our printed masters are reused every time we make a new mould.
Every year, we'll donate $1 from every sale to restoring native grasslands through a local not-for-profit. Small things add up.
