"Innesti" is an Italian word which describes the combination of two elements or different plants (mostly used in botanical context). I liked the idea to combine two different materials as ceramic and plaster, to cross in this way some borders and limits of both materials and so create a new element. It’s a feeling of freedom.
I’m very fascinated from the transformation of the ceramic material in the kiln. I play with the firing process to get new movements and shapes of the structures: the material becomes soft while firing and changes its shape. The movement of the ceramic parts is like held from the massive plaster base. There is a contrast between this massive shape and the light, fragile ceramic sheets. The two materials are quite different, but have some similarities too: they both change their state going through physical processes. Plaster gets from liquid to solid and clay becomes also soft and malleable in the kiln and then solid while cooling down. Plaster is for me a bonding element, both formal and physical.
In the traditional ceramic handcraft plaster has an important role in the casting of vessels (as mould), but it is very dangerous for the production of vessels if it mixed with ceramic. I would like to open the ceramic material to a new freedom and try out new possibilities.
