Brussels artist Shishi San's tufted wool vessels inspired by Chinese ceramics

Shishi San makes vases you can't put flowers in. The Brussels-based artist builds soft sculptures from tufted wool, shaped after antique Chinese forms such as ginger jars, flasks and phoenix-tail vases, then pushes their proportions and colours well beyond the originals. Born in Vietnam and adopted by a Belgian couple, she threads her own story through them, mixing chrysanthemums, hibiscus and beckoning cats with stained-glass florals and Art Nouveau scrolls.

Her method is thoroughly hands-on. She stretches cloth on a frame, draws straight onto it, fills the pattern with a tufting gun, then assembles the flat panels onto a structure and trims the pile into shape with scissors. She learned to sew from a childhood neighbour, taught herself embroidery, knitting and crochet, and took up rug tufting in 2019 before moving into three dimensions. Some pieces sit on carved-wood pedestals, a nod to how such objects have long been displayed.

Her largest work so far, Malachite Vase, stands nearly four feet tall, with lotus flowers and Art Nouveau leaves meeting on one surface. AD reports that a piece at Venice's Homo Faber festival this September left visitors itching to touch it. For those who missed it, she is preparing a solo show at EDJI Gallery in Brussels for summer 2027; worth noting if textile art or ceramics history is your thing.

Our summary of a story from Architectural Digest, published 13 October 2026. Read the original