Dannelle’s roots in Aotearoa run through her work, alongside a deep inspiration drawn from the natural world. This comes through in a rich, often unexpected colour palette, and an organic, elegant sensibility — one that celebrates imperfect beauty rather than smoothing it away.

Her pieces are often shaped by memory and instinct as much as by plan — colour and pattern have delighted her since childhood, and a career prior to ceramics as a film makeup artist trained the same eye for texture, tone, and the way light shifts a surface.

Her artistic philosophy centres on presence: on handbuilding each piece slowly enough to let its own character emerge, and on the connections the work creates along the way — with a wider studio community, and with the collectors and buyers around the world who’ve come to know the pieces.