Why did you start this craft?
In 1993 I enrolled at the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi, in Belgium, where I started working with clay, followed by earthenware and porcelain. A few years later I discovered glass paste. It felt like discovering magic, that excitement has never left me!
When did you open your own studio?
My workshop was opened for clay work when I acquired a potter's wheel in 1999. At that time I did not have a kiln at home and the firings were done at the Academy. In 2006, when I started working with glass paste, an electric kiln was added to the equipment.
© Francine Delmotte
How is your profession linked to the territory?
I come from a region with a long tradition of glassmaking and whose craftsmen have spread their know-how all over the world. Moreover, the region has also specialised in utilitarian and decorative pottery.
What inspires your work?
Shadows and light, cold and ice, cracks on the surface – my objects are inspired by utilitarian objects, even though they themselves are not. The search for breaks and ruptures is part of my work: each creation offers its share of surprises after firing, when it is removed from the mould.