Mona-Lisa Klavus
The irregular shape of plates, bowls and platters are born of the hand-building process Mona-Lisa Klavus uses to form her ceramic pieces. Keeping things organic, Mona-Lisa imparts texture onto clay using recycled coffee bags for a patterned effect.
Featured on Home Beautiful’s Creative Collection Instagram feed for our Month of Makers, Mona-Lisa Klavus first worked with clay as a child in Finland – taken along to pottery classes with her mother. “I think I already then got a fascination with this amazing material and being able to make just what ever I wanted to,” she says.
Later moving to Sydney, Mona-Lisa revisited the art, “I found myself taking evening classes in ceramics and straight away I fell on love with the clay.”
She now works from a small home studio, juggling studio life with two children. “Being so close to my work space gives me flexibility and the freedom to pop in when ever I feel inspired. And really working with ceramics is almost like working with babies – they need constant looking after during their journey from a lump of clay to a beautiful piece of functional art.”
“That I can take the whole journey of a piece into my own hands… create something functional and beautiful from something meaningless is just mind boggling and so very satisfying.”
“I think it is important as an artist that I look into myself, design and make pieces that I love and find pleasing,” says Mona-Lisa Klavus of her work. “I have found that when I stop looking at what others do and stop trying to figure out what people want I really create my best work and find my own style. After that everything else falls into place.”
Expect to see big things coming soon from Mona-Lisa. “At the moment I am busy getting ready for a big food and wine show in June. I will then launch a new line of dining ware,” she enthuses. “This is all happening at the same time as we are renovating the whole upstairs floor. I am so pleased to be able to escape to my small studio from the mayhem of my home right now.”
Visit Mona-Lisa here to stay up to date.
