Formed by Hand: A Conversation with Pazzalotti

You came to ceramics relatively recently. What first drew you both to working with clay, and how did Pazzalotti begin?

We’ve always been creative people, working across different projects and mediums independently, but had always been looking for a way to collaborate and make something together.

Finding clay was really a bit of a surprise to both of us. Bek had done some wheel throwing before, but it wasn’t until we went to a hand-building class together that we both became completely absorbed by it.

We feel like the combination of clay being so tactile, but also so fluid and mouldable, really appealed to us. All of a sudden, it felt like anything was possible and a lot of those usual creative and technical barriers seemed to disappear. The practice has really grown quite naturally from there.

Pazzalotti is a shared creative practice. What does that collaboration look like in the studio, and how do your individual approaches influence the finished work?

We see the process as a big, open-ended conversation between the two of us. While we started out creating and building pieces together, our roles have naturally evolved. I now do much of the building and sculpting, while Bek focuses more on glazing and developing our approach to colour and palettes.

Through this though, it's still very much a shared creative process. We're constantly discussing ideas, responding to each other's instincts and making decisions together as each piece develops, from the direction of the sculptural form through to the final glaze application.

Bek’s background as a painter has really shaped the way she approaches glazing. The forms I create become like three-dimensional canvases for Bek to respond to, although the conversation between form and colour begins long before that stage.

As we explore the process further, we’re noticing a really nice interaction between our different approaches. Certain textures and sculptural gestures lend themselves to a more expressive glaze application, and we love seeing that dialogue continue to evolve.

There's a wonderful sense of movement and spontaneity in your pieces. Where do your ideas for new forms begin, and how much do you allow the clay to guide the outcome?

Absolutely. Both the building and glazing stages rely a lot on movement, rhythm and energy. We always have music playing in the studio and try to stay quite loose and free when working, which we feel ultimately finds its way into the pieces.

We generally start with sketches of a form or a defined structural base, often with the intention of pushing something quite traditional into new territory.

From there, the building process tends to evolve as we go. We’re really trying to capture a kind of flow state, reducing the moment between thought and action and letting things happen quite instinctively.

Sometimes we might push the clay to the edge of it's capacity, and it responds in a way we hadn't anticipated. Those unexpected shapes and asymmetries often become a huge part of the piece's final character, and we really welcome that.

The same goes for glazing. We’ll begin with a palette in mind, but the way the colours are applied and interact is often only realised in the moment. It’s a very intuitive and expressive process.

Your use of colour is particularly distinctive. What influences your palette, and how do you approach experimenting with different glazes and finishes?

Colour is such a big part of what we do. We want to create pieces that bring joy, vibrancy and energy into a space, so naturally we’ve spent a lot of time experimenting with different glazes and combinations.

We’ve built up quite a collection of textured glaze samples in the studio, so we’ll often start by laying them all out on the floor and seeing how different colours work alongside each other. For a larger body of work, we might start with a broader palette and explore different combinations across individual pieces. We love mixing different surface finishes and finding colour combinations that feel a little unexpected, but just make you happy.

We’ve always enjoyed trying new glaze combinations to see what happens, so we made the decision quite early on to experiment directly on finished pieces. It means the results can sometimes be a complete surprise, but we love that sense of the unknown when opening the kiln.

Can you talk us through the making of a Pazzalotti piece, from hand-building to firing? What are some of the challenges or surprises that come with working in ceramics?

Each Pazzalotti piece is one-of-a-kind, built by hand using coiling and slab techniques. We naturally like to work quite large, so each piece is built gradually and with a lot of care. There are several stages of building, refining and drying before a piece is ready for its first firing. It's a considered process that requires patience, which doesn't always come naturally to us or the way we like to work.

Once a piece is built and completely dry, it goes through its first firing. We then work together on the final direction of the surface and colour before Bek begins glazing, and the piece goes back into the kiln for its final firing. This whole process may take a few weeks to see a piece reach its final form.

Because we work so intuitively, every piece is quite unique, and we love that each finished work has it's own individual character, textures and marks. We're constantly learning how to work with the challenges of the material, reduce waste and give each piece the best chance of making it through to completion.

There are so many variables involved, and even with detailed the planning and experience, a lot remains outside of our control. But that's also what makes it so rewarding. When everything comes together and a piece emerges from the kiln, there's always a sense of magic in that moment.