Frignani has a “home laboratory” in Milan and it’s where she creates her special pieces which are inspired by nature’s lines and colors.
Image courtesy of: Well-Made
Design
Wunderkammer Studio is fabulous!
Milan epitomizes style, creativity, and class… so it’s no surprise that Claudia Frignani calls Milan home and grew up nearby, in Massa, Carrara. As the name implies, Carrara is the place where the white marble quarries are located… and it’s also a stone’s throw away from the sea. You don’t have to dig deep to figure out where Frignani’s influences came from.
Frignani founded Wunderkammer Studio with her brothers, Nicola and Mattia, in 1993. Until recently, the studio’s main purpose was to make furnishings; but within the last few years, ceramics have become a focal point of the Frignani’s.
About the tactile aspect of her objects, Frignani says: “It is very important. Touch is a language of the hands. Caressing a surface can be very pleasant as materials transmit sensations, but you have to recognize them. I have found that there is often a sort of tactile illiteracy…. many people are unable to recognize materials.”
Image courtesy of: Well-Made
Frignani personally works whole blocks of raw clay. With her experienced hands, she shapes the vases and later on, “decorates” them with scales, leaves or veins… beautiful 3-dimensional textures. The vases dry for ten days prior to being fired in the kiln. Once that process is complete, the vases are fired for again. This slow and intricately involved process beautifully showcases how a simple material can turn into a refined object. Art and design indeed have a delicate balance between them!
Artemisia Collection, “Number 6”.
This piece receives its textured look through fired at two varying temperatures. The raised fish scale pattern and the curved, non-symmetrical rim of the vase makes it unique and extraordinarily interesting.
Image courtesy of: Venice Clay Artists
A self-taught ceramics artist, Frignani has always asked a lot of questions. It is a technique from South American, called “columbine” which Frignani employs. The “pot-making process” uses long coils of rolled clay, wound in a circular way. These coils are repeated again and again both with force and delicacy at the same time. Once the form is shaped to her liking, Frignani begins adding the decorations. Those additional aspects are the ones that make her items unique as they come from her imagination… formed from memories captured during her time in nature.
Artemisia Collection, “Number 4”. 40 cm (width) x 32 cm (height).
Functional decor at its best!
Image courtesy of: Wunderkammer Studio
Who can argue against these vases being seen as a form for inspiration. Of course a regular vase has a purpose; but when it’s transformed by Frignani’s delicate hands, it turns into art. Always attracted by concave forms, Frignani loves the idea that a vase can contain something inside, conceal something from the outside, and protect from exterior forces.
Claudia Frignani
Image courtesy of: Artemest
The custom pottery creation made by Frignani are quite a difference from the pendants and masks she made as a child. Always creative, Frignani found refuge in materials, colors and… pencils… as a way to express herself. We are happy she’s made it to the place where she is now!
