His floral event business, Floral Studies, is blooming at at Storehouse 9 in the Charleston Design District
Sonny Sisan didn’t set out to be a ceramist or to run a floral studio, but the best creative paths rarely follow a straight line. A Spartanburg native who moved to Charleston in 2014 to study historic preservation and urban planning, Sisan found himself drawn toward smaller, more intimate creative work: interiors, then ceramics, and eventually flowers.
Today, he runs a thriving floral event business, Floral Studies, at Storehouse Nine in the Charleston Design District, where his ceramics practice lives alongside it. Known for a signature style that blends Lowcountry wildness with sculptural precision, Sisan has created an aesthetic that feels genuinely his own. Here, he discusses his artistic evolution.
A Good Fit: After studying historic preservation and urban planning at College of Charleston, I went on to work in city planning, but I kept moving toward smaller creative jobs like working in interiors. Then, I took a ceramics course in 2017, and it came so naturally to me. During the pandemic, I started my ceramics brand, Studio Sontosis. I was also working with a floral shop in town and that came naturally, too. The moral of the story was really about discovering my unique fit and figuring out where I belonged creatively.
I didn’t plan to start a floral company. But over time, I realized I didn’t love the idea of my ceramics work being a business. I gradually started doing small events for friends, and it grew from there, really taking off around 2022. We have a nice studio in the Navy Yard now. It’s exciting because I have both mediums. The floral work actually allows me to pursue ceramics; I make a lot of vessels for our event and wedding work.
An Eventful Life: We mostly do weddings, but we do events of all sizes. When I started, I wanted to focus on more bespoke, smaller events, but I’ve grown to love doing big weddings, too. My friends have told me my style is recognizable; they could spot it out in the wild and know I made it. It’s a blend of the natural, overgrown beauty of the Lowcountry but with a strong design sensibility. I have a background in design, so I’m really intentional about color. People notice our colors and how deliberately we use them. It changes the entire vibe of an event. Our aesthetic is this cool blend of form and formlessness. It’s sculptural, loose, inspired by forms in nature, and very whimsical.
Achieving a Balance: My ceramics studio is inside the floral studio, so they coexist. Our busiest seasons are spring and fall. Summer slows down, so we get a bit of a break in July. I really appreciate those moments when I can switch my brain over to ceramics. Floristry is so fast-paced and perishable. We have to make things quickly, on a deadline. But ceramics is slow. It’s just me and the material. It’s nice to go back and forth between the two. I’m so glad I have both.
Finding Inspiration: Art is a huge inspiration for me. I love going to museums; I love traveling—I get to New York a lot for work and inspiration. I like going to museums alone and walking with my headphones on. I draw a lot when I’m doing floristry; I feel like I’m painting with living material in three dimensions. I also do a lot of meditative walks. Hampton Park is incredible for that because things change every week. Seeing what becomes overgrown, what shifts with the seasons, that feeds directly into the work.
His Ceramics: I’ve done a lot of shows, but I didn’t like selling my work in a conventional way. I’ve always wanted more of an experience around it. That’s part of what led me to start PaperWeight about two years ago with Leigh Sabisch, Mat Duncan, and Emily Furr. It’s a creative, artist-run gallery and experience, but it’s not currently brick-and-mortar. We’ve hosted a variety of works from both out-of-town and local artists and have been showing in the Navy Yard. I haven’t had as much time to make work lately, but when I do, I’ve been leaning into more sculptural, one-of-one, larger-scale pieces.
The Journey: We’ve grown and doubled every year. It’s been a fun journey. It’s all happened so naturally, and I’m incredibly grateful for it.
