Italians, Michaela Foppiani and Marcello Massoni, met while studying at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. Michaela had a background in sculpture and Marcello was a Political Science major who found his calling with ceramics after taking a few classes from ceramic masters at the university.
Beauty from a past collection!
Image courtesy of: Gaya Ceramics
Moving to Bali together in 2001, Marcello and Michela established Gaya Ceramic and Design. Their hope was to build a place where “intuition, inspiration, craft and love would combine”… and they succeeded!
Although their main business has always been the creation of exclusive custom ceramic collections, they’ve recently started to sell some of their designs in their Ubud, Bali showroom and online.
Furthermore, in 2010, they founded the educational branch Gaya Ceramic Arts Centre where there are regular ceramic classes, workshops and an Artist in Residency program.
5,000 medium-sized and unique pieces are produced each month.
Image courtesy of: Trendland
What’s amazing about Gaya Ceramics, is that the team of nearly 80 employees is built up from Sayan’s villagers, the spot where the company is located. Most of these people got their initial training at Gaya Ceramics’ “apprentice” program.
Everyone at Gaya is passionate about what they do, everything is handmade and above all, craftsmanship is valued and promoted!
Inside the studio…
Image courtesy of: DamDam
What’s great at Gaya Ceramics is that hand-thrown ceramics are created using a variety of materials such as porcelain, raku clay and stoneware. In addition, there are several firing options, each having a slightly different objective, raku, bottle kilns, and wood-fired anagama.
Image courtesy of: Trendland
With clients such as Armani Casa and Bulgari Hotels, Gaya Ceramics has made a name for itself primarily due to their one-of-a-kind designs. With ceramics, the outcome is unknown until you open the kilm and look inside… so the continued exploration that happens at Gaya Ceramics is always building on itself.
It’s the continued desire to create art within functional objects that caught our eye. Truth be told, a Gaya Ceramics piece is something that everyone should strive to own