Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
With their delicate tulip petals, intricate details, and organic shapes rendered in the color of fresh snow, sculptor Bella Enkel’s ceramic home décor is inspired by the world around her, including elements from nature and a special connection to statues of Buddha, which she grew up surrounded by at home.
In 2016, a first-time visit with her mom to the Saint Louis Art Museum jump-started the then-20-year-old’s work with clay. Her mom fell in love with the museum’s display of Buddha statues and asked her daughter if she would sculpt one for her.
“I said, ‘Sure, why not?’” Enkel completed the work with next to no experience with clay, she says, and has worked in the medium ever since.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Bella Enkel
Originally from the Cambridgeshire area of England, Enkel and her family moved to St. Louis in 2014 when her father was relocated to the area. “We had never heard of Missouri…We were welcomed with humidity and tornadoes on our first night,” she says. A high school student at the time, art was more of a hobby and budding passion.
“I've just always been creative, always trying new things,” she says. “I did art in school and it was my favorite subject, but I never found the thing that made my heart sing. I never felt like I was good at it because I hadn’t found my thing yet.”
After six years honing her skills with clay, Enkel reached out to Union Studio owners Mary Beth Bussen and Sarah Kelley, in 2022, to see if they would carry her statues. Though Bussen and Kelley were reluctant to sell religious objects in the store, they loved the detail in Enkel’s collection and asked if she would consider designing a line for the home.
That’s when the self-taught artist got to work creating smalls, such as the candle holders, trinket dishes, and food platters that are sold at the shop.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
“If it wasn't for Mary Beth and Sarah, I don't think I would be making the pieces that I'm making today, so I owe a lot to them,” she says. “Because the pieces are inspired by Buddhist statues and nature, it makes my heart sing and I love making them.”
The ‘Annie’ taper candle and the ‘Elizabeth’ pillar candle holders are both inspired by the intricate pedestals that Buddha statues sit on, says Enkel. “I’ve always felt a calmness when I look at [statues of Buddha] so that’s something I’ve wanted to emulate in what I make. I want people who look at my work to feel at peace, even for a moment.”
Enkel makes her pieces from stoneware, a type of non-porous clay. To maintain uniformity throughout her collection, she employs cookie cutters and cut-out templates that she draws by hand. To flatten out the large sheets of material, Enkel uses a slab roller built for her by her dad.
“From there, I cut out the shapes and the pieces I need, and build it from there.” Once the pieces have been fired–since Enkel doesn’t own a kiln, she performs this step at Krueger Pottery Supply–she then glazes each piece by hand, painting on multiple layers of ‘Snow’ by Amaco with brush-like strokes. “I don’t dip,” she explains, “partly because I'm still teaching myself how to do all these things and there's a lot of learning.”
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Enkel says her biggest challenge has been growing the business on the non-creative side.
“I've had to really shift my mindset the last six months of how I can make this work. I've had to figure out marketing strategies, up my social media presence, and switch my mindset to business. I’ve been getting a lot of help from my partner. He has a business degree, so we’re kind of putting our heads together,” she says.
They’re also facing the newness of being first-time parents to their infant son.
“We live with my mother-in-law and so we do have help, which is incredible. I've [worked as] a nanny up until I took my maternity leave, and did my art on the side. Now that I'm coming out of maternity leave, I'm going to be doing art full time,” Enkel says.
Photography by Kevin A. Roberts
Her goal is to eventually move out of the corner of her mother-in-law’s house where she currently works, and find her own studio space. Enkel recently launched a website, bellaenkel.com, and is selling her products in Down the Rabbit Hole, another local boutique, as well as Union Studio. New work is on the way in 2025, including soap dishes, more candle-holder designs, and even wall clocks. She’s also planning to introduce more color.
“I want my pieces to be functional art in people's houses. It’s opened up my mind to the things that I can make out of ceramic pottery,” she says.
