06 / 10 / 2026
Image by Henri Vogt
Borg’s interest in ceramics began with a longing to learn something from scratch and to find a creative outlet outside the fast-paced restaurant world. His first re-encounter with clay as an adult came during a day at his family’s summer house. In a state of childhood nostalgia, he remembered the beautiful clay he had seen by the nearby creek where they played as children. They used to gather clay, play with it, shape it into different objects, and leave it in the sun to dry, but the objects never lasted. That day, he walked back to the creek and started digging for clay. What followed was an experiment with wild-sourced clay, internet research, and the oldest clay-firing method: pit firing. A year later he started his artisan studies in ceramics.
Sebastian Borg photographed by Joel Grandell
Fire as a shared language
The element of fire has always fascinated Borg. He initially found the atmosphere of restaurant work intriguing: the hectic tempo, the careful planning of different steps, juggling several projects at once, and figuring out a system that makes everything run smoothly. The most precious part, though, was working with high-quality, seasonal and local ingredients. And working with fire.
For Borg, moving from a field where he was an expert into a completely new one felt like a fresh breeze. When he began his studies in ceramics, he was excited to learn something new. The learning curve was steep at first: learning how clay behaves in your hands and getting to know the different methods and techniques. “I was excited about everything I didn’t know,” Borg says.
Borg sees a connection between his work as a chef and his work with clay: in both, he works with a biomaterial and transforms it with heat. With clay, the transformation is even more evident. Working in and with the process is a cornerstone of Borg’s practice. “For me, the process is everything. I really work in the process. I’m not very good at planning and making sketches... I love when I start working and get an idea which leads to another idea. It’s a state of flow where you can work freely.”
The firing of ceramics is a process of transformation and uncertainty. “I think fire is an incredibly powerful element. In a way, it’s alive... The history and technique of pottery firing is ancient,” says Borg. The firing process is also partly uncontrollable: “Every firing is unique. And every firing will look different. You won’t find one piece that’s exactly like another.” You might adjust the temperature, manage the length of the firing, but there are many details you can’t control. Inside the heat, there’s so much energy in motion. You can’t control how the fire creeps through the kiln. Or how the ash flies. All of this creates effects that cannot be replicated, Borg explains. It is the unpredictable and uncontrollable, and the possibilities that come with them, that appeal to Borg. “It gives the objects character.”
Bread plate for Bona Fide, photographed by Sebastian Borg
Charger plate, Bona Fide, photographed by Sebastian Borg
From Bona Fide to
Helsinki Playground
While studying, Borg worked at the Bib Gourmand restaurant Bona Fide in Kruununhaka, Helsinki. This led to one of Borg’s first customer projects, designing and crafting tableware for Bona Fide. The first work was a bread plate with a shallow white ceramic form decorated by a dynamic rim in different colors. For the bread plate, Borg worked with self-made templates and joined the pieces together by hand. For the same setting, Borg also designed a charger plate that serves as a decorative piece throughout the dining experience. The plate is thrown on a potter’s wheel and decorated with small dots of slip.
The tableware brings Borg’s two practices together: the ceramics are not only objects to look at, but part of the experience of eating.
Clay mushroom, Helsinki Playground, photgraphed by Joel Grandell
A meaningful step for Borg was being able to work with the creative platform Helsinki Playground, which gave him a sense of community. Started in 2022 by Adam Tickle, Helsinki Playground today connects a large part of Helsinki’s design, craft and art scenes. “Adam is the driving force behind it all. Helsinki Playground has given me space, visibility and support right from the start. It’s felt very good,” says Borg. The platform also organises large ceramic and craft fairs twice a year, as well as smaller events held both at Helsinki Playground’s showroom and abroad. One of Borg’s more popular works at these events is a clay mushroom with a dynamic twist. The mushrooms are made intuitively, without sketches: “I have a clay bucket where I put leftovers from pottery trimming. I often make the mushrooms from that clay because it changes slightly all the time.” The stem of the mushroom is decorated with a white glaze, while Borg experiments with different glazes for the cap depending on what he has in the studio.
Clay as a teacher
Working with clay demands presence and patience. Clay is not something you work on; it’s something you work with. The firing process is partly beyond anyone’s control.
While we usually associate nourishment with food, what might nourishment mean beyond the plate? As he has spent more time at the potter’s wheel than in the kitchen, Borg has discovered that the creative process itself can be deeply nourishing. “I’ve also noticed that when an object is finished coming out of the kiln, it’s nice to have it finished. But I’ve already got the most out of the process. I got mine when I made it.” For Borg, the most rewarding part is getting an idea and, as the process unfolds, the idea is reshaped and takes on a different form or meaning.
For someone coming from the restaurant world, where timing and efficiency are essential, clay offers a different relationship with time. Time seems to disappear when you get into a flow and lose yourself in your work. But some steps include long waiting times, which can feel dreadful, Borg explains. In those moments, it’s easy to want to start another project or do something else that makes the time feel more efficient. Borg sees this tendency as something he has carried with him from his work as a chef, and something he now wants to address by focusing on fewer projects. “My relationship to patience has changed a lot. I’ve been forced to learn to be more patient. It’s been a beautiful process. It’s helped me in my relationship, in my everyday life and in the studio.”
“I think everyone should experiment more with being creative and making things. Being present and making something with your full concentration isn’t something we do much anymore. People live hectic lives and focus on their work, the next goal and being productive... You want to be efficient and succeed in everything, but I believe we need more patience, a moment to take a breath and not feel like we must have an end-goal in everything we do,” says Borg.
The balance in the shape, or the shape of balance
For Borg, taste is about balance. “To get something to work, you basically need three to four things: salt, sweetness, acidity and fat. If you have these in balance, you get quite far in getting a successful dish.” For Borg, the same principle applies to form. “For a piece to work, you need balance in its shape. How much it protrudes, how much it recesses, what the rim looks like… And I’ve noticed that these are quite small details in ceramics. A tiny crack at the rim can make a huge difference,” Borg explains.
Borg wants to work more with local natural clay, which he considers a beautiful and sustainable raw material. He would also like to learn more about wood-fired ceramics and explore how the firing process can shape the material and the final object.
“I think it has a lot of potential... It would be fun to experiment with it.”
He hopes to continue exploring its possibilities and developing his practice through the material. For Borg, both food and clay begin with a material, but neither ends there.
Bona Fide bread plate, photographed by Henri Vogt