What is your educational background?
When I was young, I dreamed of being an interpreter. So, after high school, I went to the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Geneva. One day, for fun, I took a ceramic course. I liked it, but it was when I visited the Baur collection in Geneva that I really fell in love with ceramics. That was a revelation.
What did you do after your University studies?
I finished university and went to teach English in the Sudan, where I stayed for nine months. At that time, in Africa, there were many foreign professors who were teaching the population how to speak English. I imagined staying in Sudan for the rest of my life, but suddenly war broke out.
©Adele Stefanelli
Have you had a break from ceramics?
I had been working for a number of years as a ceramicist, but I was sick of doing the same things every day. So I decided to quit and work as an interpreter – my first love – for the following ten years. Between 2003 and 2015, I didn’t touch clay. Then I suddenly realised how much I was missing it, I started doing ceramics again and haven't looked back.
Where did you learn Kintsugi?
While I was in China, I had the opportunity to practice Kintsugi, the ancient Japanese technique of repairing broken ceramics with pure gold. I then went on to Kyoto, Japan, to attend private Kintsugi classes with Mio Heki to perfect my technique.