The hands behind the clay
I had a happy childhood between Lisbon and my grandmother's house in the countryside. With nothing but nature and time, I learned to pay attention: to ants carrying food, wind bending the grass, birds hidden in the trees. The rest of the time I was making things, surrounded by paper, glue, scissors, and craft shows on TV. From the start, what I loved was the building.
I studied Product and Interior Design at university. My first contact with clay was there, but it didn't catch me at the time. A few years later I went back, and this time it stayed. For two years I learned from a ceramicist in Lisbon, until I felt ready to work on my own.
Now I work alone in my studio, on the edge of Lisbon. When I'm with clay, everything else goes quiet. It's just me and the piece, and each one ends up different from the next. I make pieces I'd want to live with myself.
The Process
Everything I make is built by hand, slowly. Fired between 1240 and 1280°C, no two pieces come out the same. The methods change, and so does the clay.
Most of what I make leans toward the earthy and natural. Texture is where I spend most of the time, worked with natural sponges, straw brushes, fabric, whatever the piece asks for. I make my own engobes and slips, and use wild materials I find in all sorts of ways. When I glaze, I keep it simple, often leaving the clay showing. I'm always trying new mixes, new ways to bring natural materials into the clay.
Alongside that, I love making the pieces that make you smile. What I'm after is the calm that nature makes you feel, mixed with some of my own warmth, and the small things that make a place feel a bit more lived-in.