Heart-meltingly adorable ceramic characters by Veera Krouglov

Veera is a ceramicist, illustrator and an aspiring storyteller, as well as being a Master's student at Aalto University, studying Visual Communication Design. She has worked across various artistic mediums, from illustration to creating flip books, but whatever form the work takes, it is always unmistakably Veera's.

She explains: "I am very curious of my surroundings and the creatures (humans, animals, plants...buildings too sometimes) that populate it, and I think my observations come out naturally in my work. In my artistic practice, I tend to work quite intuitively without a specific goal in mind. I think if you work honestly and don't edit yourself too much during the process, you will end up with something that represents the way you see the world and what you find important.

"When I write or illustrate I try to define what I want to do so that the whole thing doesn't fall apart. However, with ceramics, I simply can't think too long about what I want to do because the material is so much fun to play with.

"Therefore a lot of the work is, among other things, about the joy of making and being a bit childish for a while. With 'Kopla' specifically, I also wanted to make a set of characters with different personalities, and see how they interacted with each other. It's also nice how the viewers of the work interact with the sculptures and start forming little narratives around them."

All images courtesy of the artist