Violaine Verry is an East London based ceramicist with a background in art direction and graphic design. She started working with clay in 2018 as an alternative to her former career, and her style is influenced by rustic French pottery and contemporary design. In this interview, she discusses her approach to ceramics and life, as well as upcoming projects and collaborations. Enjoy getting to know Violaine and learning about her creative process in this interview.
Violaine Verry
Considered – Explorative – Honest
First, making the shift from being a hobbyist to a pro without any formal education in ceramics, so effectively I’ve been learning as I make.
And second, I’d say juggling the multi-faceted aspects of being a one-woman band, and at the same time finding large enough chunks of time to focus on making – you can’t just dip in for an hour or two.
On one hand, you have consumers who order their food on an app and expect it to turn up on their doorstep immediately, with little thought given to the people and processes involved. On the other, I believe our overly digital lives have created a craving for connecting with artisan, handcrafted products. Overall though, there is a significant lack of understanding of the time, skill and cost involved in their creation.
Working with clay can be challenging, so remember to have fun making, and even failing. The sooner you let go of perfectionism, the happier the journey – something I always encourage my students to keep this in mind.
I have many! When a piece comes out of the kiln and it has exceeded my expectations, I can literally fall in love. Often that means I keep the piece for myself for a while, so I can familiarise myself with the reasons I love it so much, and hopefully build on that. Eventually, I can let it go, and put it up for sale – it’d be impossible to keep everything!
Coffee cup, always: mine’s an espresso, accompanied by a square of very dark chocolate ^_^
I like to start with a tidy workspace, which helps clear my mind and get in flow when I’m making – I’m not good with clutter.
There are too many incredible artists to mention. I grew up in a very artistic family, and even though it came with a lot of chaos and fragility, I’m grateful for the constant exposure to the arts I was given as a child. I would say it’s definitely impacted on all my career choices.
Not specifically, but when I’ve had to make big decisions in my life, having weighed the pros and cons at length, I’ve always ended up going with my gut feelings. I call these my ‘F*ck it’ moments, when I’m being brave and adventurous, and diving into the unknown.
Yes absolutely. These days, it feels as if you don’t exist if you’re not on social media. It has led to some lovely and supportive connections with other like-minded people, but also tragically the algorithms put artists and makers under too much pressure to create content, rather than focus on their art.
I decided aged 14 that I wanted to be a graphic designer and art director. It sounded cool, and I was determined, so I followed my dreams and worked for advertising, branding and communications agencies throughout my career – a fun but insanely fast-paced, deadline-driven, and high-pressured environment. I felt as though I was living life through a constant spin cycle.
Fast forward to 2017, and I’m signing up to pottery classes as a means to slow down, step away from the screen, and do something creative just for me, away from agency life. I take a few classes, until I finally sign up to a membership in a large pottery studio in the summer of 2018 (the proper start of my practice). By then it’s clear I have fallen in love with clay…
Because you can’t keep everything you make, I start selling my ceramics quite early on, which leads to a few commissions, and most of my ceramics featuring in a cookbook within a beautiful lifestyle publication, Emergence Magazine.
These days I split my time between making ceramics in my own studio space, teaching pottery classes, and freelancing in my other career. It’s a very busy life, and I need to work out how to bring back a bit of balance and down time into the mix…
Throughout my career in visual communications, I have been teamed up with fantastic writers, and commissioned some talented photographers, which greatly contributed to both my writing, visual and conceptual skills: I developed a taste for storytelling, contrast and composition, ensuring everything I created was considered and with a purpose. Maybe this gave me a more mature sense of aesthetics by the time I started as a ceramicist?
I’ve always been a visual person, but now that I get to use my hands too, it’s as though my creativity had acquired an extra dimension. It can be so draining to be looking at a screen all the time: at work, on the bus and at home – you’re always on.
Working with your hands slows you down, and reconnects you with your fine motor skills, encouraging your mind to either focus on the present moment, or take a back seat (at least during some of the process). I also find experimenting with how I physically impact on the clay immensely satisfying.
I would say working with clay has revolutionised my life.
The whole process of making ceramics is very humbling: potters say they pray to the kiln gods when they place their pieces in the kiln. That’s because you never really know how things will turn out.
To keep my practice a happy place, I am constantly reminding myself that any faults and issues arising during the making process should be seen as a chance for me to learn, keep an open mind, and embrace the imperfections on my pieces. After all, some of my favourite and most beautiful pieces are full of unplanned quirks! It’s a good life lesson for us perfectionists.
Currently I’m busy finishing a 30 piece custom tableware commission for a beautifully designed home in Somerset.
I’m curious to see where the residency with Vigour & Skills at the fabulous Thyme hotel leads, and I’m also very excited for our 3rd year at London Craft Week – sometimes I find it hard to believe all of this stemmed from casually taking up a hobby 5 years ago!
