Jacqueline Sanchez Wins the 2026 Etsy Design Awards Grand Prize

Texas-based ceramicist Jacqueline Sanchez has won the grand prize in the 2026 Etsy Design Awards for a one-of-a-kind vase that turns a functional form into a densely worked marine sculpture.

Built by hand over several months, the vessel is covered with more than 1,500 individually applied stoneware scales. Layered blue and green glazes, shell impressions, mother-of-pearl luster, and gold accents give the surface the shifting quality of water, while its wide rim rises and folds like a wave. Sanchez works through her Etsy shop, Atelier Vinda, where she describes a practice that moves between function and sculpture.

Craft measured in time

The winning vase makes its process visible. No two scales are identical, and their accumulation changes the silhouette as much as the color. Real shells pressed into the clay leave another record of handwork, connecting the imagery of the ocean to the physical construction of the piece.

That emphasis on labor runs through this year's awards. Glass artist Stephanie McCune received the People's Pick for a handblown glass basket, while other honors went to Katie Runnels's found-object candelabra, Amanda Reid's embroidered photographs, Cait Mellor's filet-crochet wall hanging, and Lena Rzehak's Ikebana-inspired ceramic vessel.

A broad view of independent design

The winners span ceramics, glass, fiber, illustration, jewelry, framing, and wearable art. Etsy's category names are deliberately playful, but together they reward qualities that are harder to flatten into a trend: material curiosity, patient technique, strong personal language, and objects that carry evidence of the person who made them.

The complete winners and finalists can be explored on the official Etsy Design Awards page. Sanchez's grand-prize work is also documented in detail through Atelier Vinda's listing.

Source: Etsy.