As you know, I love pottery and use it a lot in my photography and also in my daily life. The value of a handmade object is undeniable and being able to enjoy a coffee or a salad in a unique cup or bowl, or putting my flowers in a vase that is only mine and was made with passion... well, it makes all the difference.
Today I want to introduce you to Venetian potter Valentina Stocco and her brand VS Ceramics. Valentina is doing a very interesting research on the lagoon and works mainly with locally sourced clay. She has recently opened a shop very close to my house together with jewelry designer Sofia Visca (Ramingo Lab).
Here below our brief conversation.
1. Valentina, tell us a little something about yourself and how you discovered pottery and your professional journey.
I was born in Ponte dell'Olio, in Emilia Romagna, but my parents are from Mestre, so I grew up in the Venetian lagoon. I went to the Steiner school in Oriago where we were playing a lot with our hands and natural materials such as wood, and I think I was already predisposed towards ceramics because I used to love making mud cakes! Eventually I went to the art school in Venice and it was very hard to choose between painting and sculpture, because I would have liked to continue both, but a decision had to be made and so in the end I opted for sculpture because I thought it would have been harder to practice at home. I studied sculpture for 3 years, all the while continuing to paint in my free time. In fourth year, I also discovered photography and was using an old camera and developing in a dark room.
Once finished high school I enrolled in the Venice Fine Art Academy and picked up painting again, but for many reasons I didn't really feel myself in that environment so I left the lagoon and went to London for a year to learn the language. When I returned to Venice I started Visual Art and Theatre at the IUAV University, but then... I returned to London and studied photography at the Saint Martins University. There, we never picked up a camera and were researching photography through other fine art forms and in the archives. Once graduated, I had my first encounter with pottery. It was a strange period of my life, I was still in London and was working with small art galleries and was producing and selling art, but it was very intense and I was working a lot and needed to stop and take time to breathe and understand what I wanted to do.
Well, in that period in a market I saw some ceramics of a matter I really liked and so I decided to start some classes. The first time I sat at the wheel... it was love at first sight (or touch?). It was therapeutic... but at the same time, after a while I was finding it a bit too 'commercial', in the sense that I was learning a method and producing objects with pre-given materials and glazes, whereas I wanted to express myself more from an artistic point of view. After a while I returned to Venice and went to the local pottery association Ai Bochaleri and met Daniela Levera. I really liked the vibe and the atmosphere and the other potters were encouraging me to sell and made me realize I could do this for a living... and so, the rest is history.
2. What inspires you?
First of all, Venice and its lagoon. This probably because when I was away I realized I was missing the dimension of a small city, the atmosphere of Venice, its uniqueness.
I was seeing Venice like a tourist, or like a person who comes here for the first time. I was re-discovering it. So I wanted to dedicate my work to the city, to remind myself everyday and offer others another perspective of the city, which isn't only tourisms and masks.
So I have undertaken a chromatic study with particular focus on glazes, and also a study on clays and the clays of the lagoon. The latter has helped me understand more the soil on which we walk and navigate, and many other aspects of the environment. In fact, I use local clay. Compared to the more known white clays, here everything is a little more complicated... so clay is never the same because, of course, the lagoon is alive and the clay sediments change all the time. Being a basin, it receives matter both from the sea and from rivers, so it is ever changing. In 2021 I found the clay I was using mainly in the centre of some small islands and not along the coasts of our barene (marshlands), whereas in 2024 I found it along the coasts, proof that it was new and had arrived from the rivers. It was a very different clay, also from a visual point of view.
3. Any project you would like to tell us about?
Yes, as just mentioned, my lagoon researches and my desire to use local materials. In addition to the clay of the lagoon, I am also deepening my studies on other natural sources such as ashes and seaweeds. I prefer to source my own materials rather than using the ones offered in the market, because it makes me feel closer to Venice and understand more where I come from and how alive this land is. In fact, this summer together with Emilio of Sailing Venice Experience, we held a workshop on clay, sailing through the North lagoon and around the island of Torcello. It was wonderful.
4. How did you meet Sofia and the challenge of opening a shop together?
I met Sofia not really by chance, but voluntarily because I was attracted by her work and she by mine. Although she makes jewelry and I make pottery, meaning we work with very different materials and tools, we both study the territory of the lagoon and decided to collaborate and share a space to help one another and offer a different type of workshop/shop in a city that says to be ahead-of-time but where actually many shops that are not addressed to mainstream tourism are closing. I have collaborated with many other designers and artisans and I really enjoy exchanging ideas and widening my horizon. With Sofia the collaboration went further and we are happy now to be in the heart of the city, just next to our friend Shanti Ganesha (Meracu - leather goods), in Santa Maria Formosa.
I am grateful for the time Valentina dedicated to me and truly appreciate her work on the lagoon, which enables me to get to now my land a little bit better and see Venice from a different perspective. I hope you will visit her and Sofia in their shop. Meanwhile, you can support Valentina and follow her on her social media channels and website.
VS Ceramics website: https://vsceramics.com/
Shop address: Castello 5844, 30122 venezia (VE)
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