Perfumer H founder Lyn Harris has launched a fragrance called Clay alongside a ceramics collaboration with Troy Town, the London studio run by artist Aaron Angell. The new 100ml eau de parfum costs £195, and Angell’s ceramic versions of the brand’s signature bottles are now on display in Perfumer H’s London shop.
Harris, whose brand trades under the Perfumer H name, is known for turning everyday materials such as salt, ink and steam into scents, and she describes Clay as her translation of the earth. The perfume is built around a baked clay accord meant to capture the moment soft material becomes a fired object. In the perfume itself, sandalwood gives a creamy texture, ambroxan adds a mineral note, maltol brings a toasted quality that hints at the kiln, and orange flower keeps the composition bright from start to finish.
The ceramics came from a loose brief. Harris says she works to the temperament and rhythm of each artist, so she handed Angell a bottle and a fragrance sample and gave him free rein to interpret them. About three months later she received the finished ceramic pieces back from Angell’s London studio. Angell’s clay contains feldspar for texture, and the glaze was dipped in pine needle ash before firing, producing what he calls a peacock effect in the colours, which he says is unique to Troy Town. Harris said his work grows out of “Aaron’s love of old whimsical Victorian ceramics”, combined with traditional Japanese Oribe pottery, and that she was drawn to his unconventional way of thinking.
The bottles sit in Perfumer H stores alongside other ceramic pieces from Troy Town. The partnership follows a series of artist collaborations at the brand. Harris previously worked with Studio Nicholson on the Soap fragrance and a small clothing capsule, with painter Will Calver on works inspired by her scent Rose with Insect, and with glassblower Michael Ruh on hand-blown vessels for some of her fragrances.
Harris says there have been many other artist partnerships besides these, and Troy Town is the latest to join the list. Clay is available through Perfumer H, and the Troy Town pieces can be seen at the brand’s London store, where a close-up display in the shop shows some of the techniques Angell used to create the glazes.
