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©Adele Stefanelli
©Luca Loro di Motta
©Luca Loro di Motta
©Adele Stefanelli

Adele Stefanelli

Adele Stefanelli Ceramicist
Contact
Italian, English, French, German, Spanish
Hours:
By appointment only
Phone:
+39 3472211661
©Adele Stefanelli

The ceramicist interpreter

  • • Adele has lived in Geneva and in the Sudan
  • • She works in different kinds of stoneware and occasionally in porcelain
  • • She makes her own glazes

Adele Stefanelli, who is of Venetian descent, creates ceramics that are strongly influenced by Chinese and Korean ceramics which she first saw as a student while visiting the Baur collection in Geneva. She was also struck by the simple beauty of Sudanese pottery which she discovered while teaching English in the Sudan. The objects in the Victoria and Albert Museum and in the Shanghai Museum, the dozens of books she has collected from all over the world strongly marked her path. The perfect beauty of the Song ceramics fascinated her and became her guiding light. She has spent time in China and South Korea, watching and learning from the finest masters. On returning from the Sudan, Adele settled in Tuscany where she opened her first ceramics workshop and worked there until 2003. In 2019, she returned to her Venetian roots and opened her workshop in Venice: it’s her little haven, off the beaten track, where absolute peace and calm reign.

Read the full interview

Works

  • ©Luca Loro di Motta
  • ©Luca Loro di Motta
  • ©Luca Loro di Motta
  • ©Luca Loro di Motta
  • ©Luca Loro di Motta
Photo: ©Luca Loro di Motta
Teapot with kintsugi

This small stoneware teapot was thrown on the wheel then fired in an oxidation atmosphere at around 1,280°C. The smooth and butter like glaze is made with oak ash, from the fireplace in Adele Stefanelli’s house in the countryside. A few days after taking the teapot out of the kiln, the lid, in Chinese style, fell and broke. She repaired it with Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese technique for repairing broken pottery with lacquer and pure gold. The result is a very simple but unique teapot.

Height 9 cm
Width 11 cm

Photo: ©Luca Loro di Motta
Red flower button

This stoneware vase was thrown on the wheel and then fired at 1,320°C in a reduction atmosphere. The glaze is made of oak ash from the fireplace in Adele Stefanelli’s house in the countryside, with an addition of copper oxide. The bluish-purple shades derive from the thickness of the glaze which varies according to the way the ash, which is quite heavy and does not mix homogeneously in the glaze, fixes on the furnace.

Height 14.5 cm
Width 13 cm

Photo: ©Luca Loro di Motta
Korean style vase

This white vase was thrown on the wheel. Adele Stefanelli then cut the walls to obtain a hexagon shape and fired the vessel in a reduced atmosphere at 1,300°C. The milky glaze is made of oak ash. The brown spot, probably some iron oxide present in the ash, matches perfectly with the glaze and the shape and makes this vase unique.

Height 22 cm
Width 12 cm

Photo: ©Luca Loro di Motta
Plate

This large blue hued plate was hand thrown on a potter’s wheel and fired in reduction atmosphere at 1,320°C. The iron blue glaze is made of oak ash from the fireplace in Adele Stefanelli’s house in the countryside. The red shades are given by copper oxide in the glaze of other pots fired near the plate. Copper oxide volatilises: the volatilisation can affect adjacent pots, particularly those with whites, celadons or iron blue, such is the case here, resulting in a pink blush.

Height 8.5 cm
Width 37 cm

Photo: ©Luca Loro di Motta
Black moonjar

This dark porcelain jar was thrown on a potter’s wheel and fired at 1,300°C in an oxidation atmosphere. The black glaze is made of oak ash from the fireplace of Adele Stefanelli’s house in the countryside. Moonjar is the name of South Korean porcelain, round jars traditionally white, hence the name moonjar. Using a black glaze, Adele choose to make it a moonjar evocative of an eclipse.

Height 11.5 cm
Width 12 cm

Enjoy an experience with Adele Stefanelli

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