Sara Dario

Porcelain maker

©LeafCreations

Blowing in the wind

Sara combines sculpture and photography
Her technique is silkscreen printing on porcelain
Her creations are hard to the touch but fluid to the eye

When Sara Dario wants to put it simply, she jokes and says that her job is like printing T-shirts and making pasta all day. Actually, what she does in her artisan workshop is much more complex and fascinating: she creates exquisite objects with a unique technique, which is a mix of photography and sculpture. In practice, Sara takes her pictures, then she prints them on porcelain using the silkscreen method, which is rather uncommon as serigraphy is normally used on paper or fabric. Finally, she creates her vases, pots and bowls with the ancient technique of coiling, which involves layering long ropes of clay on top of one another to shape the object. The result is something hybrid, hard to the touch but fluid to the eye, like it was moved by the wind.

Interview

©LeafCreations

©LeafCreations

What is your background?: I studied Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, learnt silkscreen printing in Munich and ceramics in Montelupo Fiorentino. Then, I fell in love with photography and began experimenting with printing on different materials.
Why did you choose porcelain?: Because it’s the noblest and most versatile. It’s also one of the most challenging, though. My mixed technique requires that I work quickly: after silkscreening, I have just a few hours to shape an item before it gets too dry.
Why do you use the coiling method?: When I began to print on porcelain, all my objects were rectangular-shaped like the photos I transferred on them. I solved the problem with coiling: I cut a picture in many strips and then recompose it, shaping it as I want.
How important are the pictures in your work?: They have a major role: I either take them myself or select them carefully, and they set the tone for every series of objects. A past series, for example, was dedicated to homes and daily gestures. Now I’m focusing on nature.

Sara Dario is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2005