Coralla Maiuri

Ceramicist

©Serena Eller

©Allegra Micangeli

Soft shapes and colourful creations

Coralla creates porcelain and ceramic tableware
Her colourful pieces express their maker's free spirit
She enjoys creating an element of the unexpected

After testing other ways of self-expression, a few years ago Coralla Maiuri came back to one of her childhood passions: playing with clay, as she used to do when she was a young girl. In her Roman workshop, Coralla creates and decorates by hand plates, bowls, mugs, vases, sculptures and jars; each of them being a small universe that express her youthful and free spirit and her light-hearted poetry. Her exclusive ceramic and porcelain tableware pieces, one-off or in limited editions, transmit her love and astonishment for the gentleness of life, through unexpected shapes and vivid, joyful colours; they have very quickly attracted an international clientele.

Interview

How and when did you start?: I’ve always been attracted by art and self-expression and my passion for ceramic started when I was a just a young girl playing with clay, by the river. The truth is that during my life I did a lot of other things - fine arts, video installations - and I ended up focusing on ceramics and porcelain only a few years ago.
Do you feel more of an artist or an artisan?: I am an artisan with a free spirit. I master the techniques but I don’t let them prevail. I like to experiment, to invent new techniques and find new languages, in order to offer new interpretations of the handiwork, not the stereotype.
How would you define what you do?: I am a painter of plates. My style is not graphic at all, it’s more vivid. What I express through my tableware is not different from what I used to express with my video installations: a certain astonishment, a softness of life. My pieces are out of time.
What does well made mean to you?: It’s all about finding the right balance in the making process. The maker must inject their soul and all their love into their pieces, but they must also have a clear purpose, a direction. They must feel pleasure in making but also make a strong daily commitment.

Coralla Maiuri is a rising star: she began her career in 2017 and she started teaching in 2018