Meet the artisan
Clara Gutiérrez
Founder of the ceramics brand @ClarinaCeramics
We had the pleasure to interview Clara Gutiérrez: founder of ceramic brand Clarina Ceramic. You can find her on our shop.
Clarina is an art historian. After working for several years in galleries, she decided to sign up for ceramics classes to give it a try. Five years later, and after training as a ceramist, she works in her studio in the centre of Madrid, where she designs and creates minimalist pieces with a strong artistic influence. Blue, geometry and a functional but playful design are the main lines of her work.
Let’s have a talk with her☕️
Hello Clara, thank you for the interview. When and how did you realize pottery was your dream job?
Hi! It’s pretty funny, but it happened the first time I did ceramics. I was given a beginners course for Christmas and came back from my first class saying I wanted to do ceramics every day! At that moment, it was a seed planted in my mind. Of course, it didn’t become my job at that point.
Little by little, I started doing more and more ceramics until I decided to take the leap and train at a professional ceramics school.
You are an art historian. Do you think your background has a big impact on Clarina Ceramics? If yes, how?
It certainly has. Studying Art History has given me a global vision of the different artistic periods, movements, and disciplines, which is an endless inspiration source. Everything I learned during my studies has influenced my way of looking. For example, my first project was the Brancusi collection. This collection was born when I was at ceramics school, learning how to make primary forms on the potter’s wheel. We recycled all the pieces we had made to use the clay again. One day I stacked up all the spheres I made to take them for recycling, and I liked the pile. It looked like Brancusi’s Endless Column, so I decided to make a series of vases in honour of the artist.
They are two complementary universes, and I think I am fortunate to have this background. I always go back to my books when I need inspiration.
“I think each person has their approach to colour, and that’s why we are more receptive to certain artists or creatives because we connect with their approach to colour and the emotion they are trying to express.”
Clara Gutiérrez – Clarina Ceramics founder
What is your favorite part of the process? And do you have a personal favorite tool (sponge, potter’s wheel…)?
My favourite part is the moment when I open an oven full of prototypes and see something that works well. I think I’m addicted to the thrill of discovering a new piece I’ve made with my hands.
From the making process itself, I love trimming. The pieces come out from the wheel quite rough. At this point, they go through a refining and embellishment process, and it’s very satisfying!
My favourite tool is a yellow rib that I have had since pottery school. I make all my pieces with it. It’s almost an extension of my hand.
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Do you think colors can affect our mood somehow? How do you choose colors when you create?
Of course, they can! But not in the way they are supposed to.
For example, blue is a colour that calms me down, but it also gives me energy creativity, which makes me dream and spread very positive feelings in the end. However, they have named the saddest day of the year ‘Blue Monday’, which makes no sense!
I think each person has their approach to colour, and that’s why we are more receptive to specific artists or creatives because we connect with their approach to paint and the emotion they are trying to express.
I usually work with a reasonably small palette of colours as I make my glazes, and it is time-consuming and complicated to develop formulas that work well. I like that pieces can be combined, still maintaining a shared universe. At the same time, every season, I create new products and add new colours and patterns to keep them attractive for my customers and challenging for myself.
Please, tell us something more about the Kandinsky collection. To start: why this name? 😊
The Kandinsky collection is my signature collection and is probably the largest, as I continue to develop it many years later. I named it after the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, a figure I am very interested in because of his position on colour, geometric forms, and connection to the Bauhaus.
A few years ago, I read a letter that Kandinsky wrote to the art historian Will Grohmann in which he said: “Why does the circle fascinate me? It is the most subtle form but asserts itself unconditionally. Two – precise but inexhaustibly variable. Three – simultaneously stable and unstable. Four – simultaneously loud and soft. Five – a simple tension that carries countless tensions within it. The circle is the synthesis of the greatest oppositions. It combines the concentric and the eccentric in a single form and equilibrium. Of the three primary forms, it points most clearly to the fourth dimension.”
I found it very inspiring and decided to dedicate a collection to the circle, looking at all the possible ways of integrating it into a piece. To this day, the possibilities still seem endless to me, and this collection continues to grow year after year. It is very special to me!
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