Interview with a potter - meet Elisabetta Lombardo

Notes of a ceramic artist

When I first started writing on Substack, I searched for other potters or pottery related publications and found only one. I felt discouraged and encouraged at the same time — maybe people on Substack just don’t care for potters… But also, what an opportunity, to be first potter on Substack! The truth is there are many others out there, either they all arrived over the course of the past year (doubtful!), or they were here all along, it’s just that I suck at searching… In fact, I believe the search features on Substack have also improved.

In any case, I now know of a few and would like to introduce them to you! After interviewing myself and having fun doing it, I thought the same questions could be a good starting point to getting to know other potters, and so the Interview with a potter series was born!

The idea is to learn more about Substack potters and I may even venture outside, into the big wide world! But we all lead busy lives and the last thing I want is to come up with yet another strict deadline, so this will be an informal series which I will bring to you as I gather answers. Let’s get to it!

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Our first featured potter writes

Notes of a ceramic artist

. Elisabetta Lombardo is a ceramic artist based in Berlin; she writes about ceramics, their role in history and culture. You can check out her work on her website.

Her essays are thoroughly researched and contain a wealth of information, always centred around ceramics and pottery but the themes range from Japanese 18th century ceramics to Lord of The Rings, from poetry to astronomy. I first came across her publication through her essay The poetry in and on Ōtagaki Rengetsu's pots. I learned of this Japanese poet/potter/nun/martial arts master recently, and have been fascinated with her life and work ever since — I eagerly read Elisabetta’s post and saved it, and now I am happy to have further resources from which I can learn more about Rengetsu’s amazing life and work.

Now, without further ado… Let’s meet Elisabetta!

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1: Can you describe your making process or one of the methods you use?

I work with hand-building techniques. Most of my vases are made with a combination of pinching (for the base) and coiling. I usually start with the base and coil the rest during the course of a few days, depending on the size, to allow for proper drying and stability. After a day or two, I then trim the shape by shaving it and sometimes carve a foot.

2: What are your main sources of inspiration?

I am inspired by planetary science and astronomy. I spend a ridiculous amount of time reading and learning about far away planets, moons and astrophysics. I usually work in collections, which means that I choose a topic and then delve into it over the course of a few months. In the last year, I’ve been making work that is inspired by moons: I started with our moon and I am now making one vase for each of the 274 moons of Saturn. I love the science of it all and I use my glazes and glaze chemistry in general to fully bring together the wonder of our universe on a piece of clay.

3: Do you make pots with specific foods or purposes in mind?

I like most of my work to be functional, but that’s not the primary purpose of the piece, usually. I like to make vases and vessels and, depending on the project, I may think about how flowers would sit in them. When I make bowls for my rustic collection, I think about how they will be used and that influences their size.

4: What is your favourite form to make, or tell us about a piece you particularly liked/enjoyed working on.

Definitely vases! I like to make small/medium size porcelain vases because hand-building with porcelain is truly an exercise in patience and care. It forces me to work slowly. One of the pieces I have enjoyed working on the most has been a porcelain vase I made recently. I enjoyed building it but mostly I loved thinking through the ways in which I could apply my glazes to achieve the effect I wanted.

5: Do you have any favourite tools?

My favorite tool is probably mud tool’s do-all- rim tool. It is typically used for trimming on the wheel but I use it to trim my hand-built work and it is spectacular! It’s so sharp and precise and works amazing even when carving feet. I also love small carving tools and shavers. A wooden spoon and a wooden paddle are never missing from my bench. And, of course, a sharp potter's knife and silicone ribs of different strengths.

6: Is there something in pottery you would like to try but aren’t able to at the moment?

I would like to be able to do soda firings and pit firings regularly. For both of these, I would need a completely different infrastructure and access to spaces outside of the city, but it's a dream I am determined to realise. I have never tried soda firings but I have participated in communal pit firings and have enjoyed it immensely. I love the unpredictable nature of these firings.

7: Are there any aspects to pottery or being a potter that you are less happy about, that bother you or that you struggle with?

I cannot think of anything within the act of making itself that I do not like. I have chosen to dedicate my life to it and I love it even when it’s frustrating. I am not a patient person, but somehow, when it comes to clay, I have learned to accept that sometimes things can go wrong. I even enjoy the process of learning new things and not being great at something for a while. I also run a studio, where I teach regularly. I love teaching but obviously running a ceramic studio comes with a whole host of different things that can be daunting or frustrating. I still wouldn’t want to do anything else, but like with any job, there are aspects of mine that I sometimes don’t enjoy as much, mostly related to dealing with administration, bureaucracy and such.

8: Finally, can you share one post that you published here on Substack that you are particularly proud of?

All my articles take so long to research that after I publish them, I often feel incredibly relieved that I managed to untangle all the pages and pages of notes. Probably the article I am the most proud of so far is: The Ceramics of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy: the functional ceramics of Hobbits. I enjoyed re-watching the movies, studying the primary sources (books, letters) and drawing my own conclusions. Obviously, there is a lot out there written on Tolkien, but there wasn't yet any in-depth analysis that focused on ceramics.

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