Reverie Fair Magazine Fall 2014 | Page 26

THE ARTISTS

OF BOTTEGA KRUA

Bottega in Italian means the studio or workshop of an artist in which other artists may participate in the projects or commissions of the resident artist.

Krua is composed of letters that spell the word Raku, but it also means raw in the Venetian dialect. “Raw as the clay that we manipulate to create our objects.”

Arianna Piazza and Giada Fogliato are two of roughly 5000 ceramic artists who make their homes and livelihoods in Nove. The two met when they were 15 years old, in high school at the Art Institute of Nove, and shared a common love for ceramics. Their knowledge and experience of the art grew in the following years, and although they attended different universities, their friendship strengthened as well. But the idea of creating a pottery brand together never occurred to them.

The friends participated in a workshop at the Bottega del Tornio of master ceramist Nico Toniolo, a respected artist, teacher and mentor who shares his experience monthly through the open studio. He taught them a Japanese technique called Raku.

The Raku technique is very different from other ceramic processes. It involves pulling the pots from the kiln at temperatures around 940 degrees and covering them in sawdust, which immediately ignites. Smoke from the burning sawdust creates the unusual effects in the glaze, and darkens raw unglazed surfaces. The pots are then immersed in cold water, which shatters the molten glass glaze. Soot from the smoke seeps into the cracked glaze, revealing detailed patterns.

25 Reverie Fair / Oct. 2014