Sublimate the earth or the art of ceramics

Story of a passion not really born by chance

Already very young, Antonella, very manual, really liked to tinker. Later, she studied at the Beaux-Arts in Liège and subsequently met her husband. After ten years spent in Montpellier, they moved to Burgundy where she met the one who would teach her everything: Dorothée.

This mother, passionate about clay who owns a lathe and a kiln, suggested that she discover and practice ceramics with her. Antonella improves over time but her friend moves and to pursue her art, her husband surprises her with a oven and a lathe on her fortieth birthday. 

Stay focused to create

This ceramist puts a lot of heart into her work and as she expresses it so well, “I shoot in apnea to stay focused, because you have no room for error when shooting with white earthenware. »

Moreover, she goes on to explain to me that it is necessary to properly manage the uniform drying of white earthenware pieces (which contain limestone) because if this is not the case, they will break during cooking.

To my question “Have you ever had a favorite creation?” ", she replies that she has a barrel-shaped oven that opens from the top and that she positions the piece she wants to see rendered on the first rack or board.

Her first creation was a small bowl, she told me laughing: “it was so small that it could only hold a few peanuts. »

• Antonella Ballesta

• Antonella Ballesta

“I don’t have a lucky star above my head, I have a constellation”

Antonella is right to say this. In 2018, with three friends, she created a shared designer boutique in Salon de Provence and one day, while she replaced a craftsman who was supposed to run the boutique, one of the granddaughters of the family soap business Marius Fabre, he expresses his crush on some of his soap dishes. This will result in a great collaboration with soap dishes stamped with the name of the brand and put on sale in the soap shop.

And the story doesn't end there since the company contacted by the Élysée for the creation of a personalized soap cube "Marius Fabre x Élysée", called on Antonella to create a soap dish stamped "RF" . 

To date, they are sold in the Marius Fabre and Élysée boutiques.

A boutique reserved for creators: La place des artisans

Visit this boutique to appreciate different pieces created by the hands of Antonella but also by other artisans: macramé accessories from Félicie G, jewelry from Atelier d'Agathe, scented candles from Stelly Bougies, bags in Japanese cotton by Patricia Romance, paintings on wood by Hélia and Pampa, and baby items by Lin Mandarine. 

• I.Filaseta

• i.Filaseta