Ceramicist Jo Davies’ Zsa Zsa Vase still a hit despite being panned by Alan Sugar

Ceramicist Jo Davies. Photograph: Matthew Booth (matthewboothphotography.com)

Thankfully most artists do not have to submit their work for critical appraisal by Lord Alan Sugar, and neither – technically – did Clapton-based ceramicist Jo Davies.

But her Zsa Zsa Vase, a delicately hand-crafted object made from wheel-thrown porcelain at Ms Davies’ studio in Stoke Newington, did end up on the boardroom table of Hackney-born Lord Sugar during an episode of The Apprentice earlier this month – and the famous magnate did not take kindly to the creation.

Lord Sugar raged against the object, describing it as “that bloody vase”, and said it belonged somewhere “arty farty” – a claim Ms Davies calls “hilarious”.

The Zsa Zsa Vase created by Ms Davies. Photograph: Matthew Booth (matthewboothphotography.com)

The background to this incident goes something like this: a team of potential apprentices had been given the task of sourcing products for a pop-up shop in the BoxPark, Shoreditch, and one of the budding entrepreneurs plumped for Ms Davies’ Zsa Zsa Vase, which is named in honour of Zsa Zsa Gabor.

“It obviously didn’t appeal to Lord Sugar’s aesthetic idea of what people in Hackney would be buying,” says Ms Davies, a graduate of the Royal College of Art who has taken commissions from clients including Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen Cornwall.

“When we were first watching the episode I had had a couple of beers and I thought it was hilarious, but then the next day I kept getting responses saying, ‘Oh, by the way don’t worry, I thought your work was really good’, and other people’s concerns started making me feel more concerned, so I have had a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions about it.”

Ms Davies need not be overly worried though. Her Zsa Zsa Vase, the design for which she describes as “like a glamorous burst,” has growing international renown and orders for the object have come from as far afield as the Maldives and Australia.

She exhibits nationally and internationally, and her installation Pieces of Kennet – inspired by the designs of artist William Morris – is currently on show as part of The Open West at Newark Park in Gloucestershire.

Ms Davies, 32, says she has no problem alternating between making functional objects and art for art’s sake.

Asked why she loves working with clay, she says: “Maybe it is because I can manipulate it with very little need for a huge amount of equipment in the first instance. Maybe it’s because I’m a control freak and I can do things quite directly with my hands.

“You get to a point, when you are working with a material, that you just think in that material, and I am so far beyond that I can’t even remember when it first started to happen.”

For more on Jo Davies’ ceramic art and her Pieces of Kennet installation see jo-davies.com