A virus-shaped vase, anyone? Why Covid is a muse for today’s artists
Sarah Johnson
Lee Cartledge, a potter in North Yorkshire, has spent a large chunk of lockdown making vases in the shape of the Covid-19 virus.
He had the idea in February last year, after seeing the shape on the news. “They kept coming up with this glorious image of this bloody virus which was begging to be made in clay, in my opinion,” he says.
The limited edition Covid-19 vase is priced at £90, and £10 from each sale goes to charities helping people affected by the pandemic. So far Cartledge has sold 107 vases. Doctors and nurses have bought it as a memento, he says, and one person who lost a close friend to the virus bought three – one for himself, one to donate to the hospital where his friend died and one to take with him on a fundraising motorbike tour.