{"id":4544,"date":"2019-11-14T08:28:30","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T08:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/youtheclub.eu\/?p=4544"},"modified":"2019-11-14T08:28:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T08:28:31","slug":"about-coincidence-the-spirit-of-ceramics-and-following-a-passion-ada-di-ravello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youtheclub.eu\/index.php\/2019\/11\/14\/about-coincidence-the-spirit-of-ceramics-and-following-a-passion-ada-di-ravello\/","title":{"rendered":"About coincidence, the spirit of ceramics and following a passion: Ada di Ravello."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ada Franzesi started as an artisan at the age of 17 under the name and\nlabel \u201cAda di Ravello\u201d. Her inspiration comes from curiosity and fun at work.\nThe ceramic pieces stand out mainly for the unique technique and are requested\nby the restaurants of the Amalfi Coast. At the moment for health reasons she\ndevotes herself to the passion for audio books and the laboratory is temporarily\nmanaged by her father in the same recognizable style. Find out more at <\/em>https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adadiravello<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>http:\/\/www.adadiravello.it\/<\/em><\/a> and in Ravello (SA), Amalfi Coast, Italy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – How old are you and where are you from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – I am 25 years old and I am from Ravello in the Amalfi Coast,\norigins from Salerno. I am working already in the third generation. My father\nand my grandfather were in the sector, but not as artisans. They worked in\nfactories on the industrial level, while I am the first in the family to have\nhad a craft laboratory, where I made everything myself, from decoration to\nproduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What is your educational background?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – I graduated from the classical high school, then I studied Visual Art\nin Bologna. I chose this course because it seemed to fit my habits, character\nand what I was doing at that moment without however precluding myself from other\npossibilities. I often change ideas and occupation, I like to change, so in\nthis sense I chose a study course that also allowed me to get a more or less\nartistic training in 360 degrees. In fact, it turned out well, because even now\nat the radio (Current occupation, comment)<\/em> I can use many of the skills\nthat I have achieved at university. So, it turned out fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – How did your family react when you wanted to dedicate yourself to\nart in a serious way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – It happened almost by accident, there wasn’t the one clear moment\nof deciding. The story developed when a friend of my father’s asked my father for\nhelping setting up a small laboratory. He had a passion for ceramics, in his\nyouth he also used to work with ceramics, and he wanted to retake this passion.\nSo my father helped putting up this laboratory, and I used to go and play there\nwith the ceramics, since he was a friend of the family. I used to go also with\nfriends to experiment with the ceramics until one summer, I was in the fourth\nyear of high school, I needed some money to go on vacation. I decided to make a\nsmall selection of the best pieces that had come out from that winter and I\ntried to sell them. To my parents it seemed like a good idea. I found customers\nby directly going to the people in town, with the box of the pieces, saying “Hello,\ngood morning, I’m Ada, I’m 17, … Can I show you something, are you interested\nin a particular pottery?”. My pieces stand out also by the eye, and this\nis the feature that brought me the most forward, that my ceramics was very\nrecognizable. Practically from there it became an occupation, because I had a\ngood response from the shops of the Coast and they confirmed me also for the\nsummer after that. Later we moved and had set up another laboratory, an extra\noven, and it became something more articulate and less amateurish.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – And now your dad takes care of the laboratory?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada \u2013 Yes. He follows the same line, the same drawings and techniques. Clearly,\nhe draws them a little differently, so if you compare them to one of mine, you\nsee that they are done by different artists. However, he does nothing different\nfrom what I did. And for now, he will continue, at least until I really recover\nmy back, because at the moment the physical ceramic work is still not possible\nfor me. It also seems paradoxical, at 25, but so it is. I had to undergo\nsurgery to solve my problem on the back caused by the hard work and lifting\nrequired by my profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What other hobbies and passions do you have?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – I hope that working ceramics professionally can also become a\nhobby. It is indeed a passion. It is something that allows me to express\nmyself, and above all to show myself, in a certain sense. It’s in the colors,\nthe nuances, it shows the humors. There is a difference between the pieces I\ndecorate in the morning and the pieces I decorate in the afternoon. In the\nmorning sometimes they are all the same, because I am tired. Before I really wake\nup, they all go out in series. But then, in the afternoon, they become more\ncreative, as if I opened up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the moment I focus on my studies again. I am specializing in audio\nbooks, another one of my passions, playing with my voice. I’m making vocal\ntrainings, in canon, interpretative, advertising, and more. So, my life has\nchanged quite a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – So you also sing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – Yes, I mostly sing popular music. Pizzica, Tammuriata, Tarantella,\u2026\nI have given myself to folklore. I’ve always been passionate about it, went to\nfestivals. Now I’m doing all this work on the voice, and so what I sing is\nfolklore lyrics and songs. They also fit really well to my vocal extension. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – Do you do this in collaboration?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – No, this is all about my initiative, I do it by myself. All I do\nwith the radio, on the other hand, the promo recordings, the audio books, etc.,\nI do in cooperation with a production company in Rome. It would also be nice to\nhave a collaboration with a local group on popular music, but at the moment I\ndon\u2019t have the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q \u2013 Going back to the ceramics, at what moment did you found the\nbusiness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – After my first sales I continued. I started with the registration\nof the VAT number as soon as possible. At the beginning my father supported me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – Where does your knowledge about ceramics come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada \u2013 From my family, my childhood. Then I decided to turn it into a\njob, and I am also a curious person, so I went to see different laboratories\nand did courses in particular techniques around Italy, in Faenza, Deruta, Caltagirone.\nI also went to have fun, if I was interested in a particular technique, such as\nraku, lusterware, reduction, I went to do courses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the base came from my family, but everything I put into it was also from\na desire to have fun and to not make it feel like a job. It is a very physical\njob, and it also leads you to be alone. At full production speed, you are\npractically a full day in a laboratory alone. You need to have nerves for this.\nBut it also gives you the possibility of thinking, the possibility of pulling\nout everything you want, precisely because you are not tied to other\ninfluences. Since you sometimes feel like a worker on an assembly line, it was\nimportant for me to make it remain a hobby in some sense, to keep the fun in\nit. Moreover, I’ve always tied it to other types of work, and so I didn’t see\nit as my main job but an additional one. I was not tied to any schedule, I\ncould all summer work in a restaurant as a waitress, just to alternate and rotate\n(in winter, however, you’re in the laboratory, to produce and then sell in the\nsummer). Not being tied to any schedule allowed me to use my time in many ways,\nalso work in the middle of the night in the laboratory if I wanted. And so it\ndidn’t seem like a job, although I still produced things that I later sold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – How did you describe or characterize your artistic style?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – I would say that my style is \u201cnaif\u201d, a little revisited\ncombination of classic and modern. I do take elements of our ceramic tradition\nand revisit them, modernize them and reread them in a certain way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pieces are all recognizable pieces, they are characterized by\nparticular enamels, particular colors, a particular effect. I would say the\ndrawing is relative, because the decor I use is based on old ceramic\ndecorations by \u201cErnestine\u201d, a ceramics designer who founded a production\ncompany from the 50s (and she played an important role for reviving Ceramics in\nher time). Since my grandfather had practically started there, he had these old\ndrawings and sketches from Ernestine. I got inspired by them, changed them a\nlittle, updated them to modern forms, and so with my technique and the drawings\ncame out very recognizable pieces, up to the point of becoming a signature. And\nthis also helped me a lot in the social media, because everyone who sees a\npiece, even it wasn\u2019t written, it was clear that it was mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this means that beyond the glaze and effect I was talking about, I\nuse only four colors – Blue, Yellow, Green and Orange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – How did you choose these colors?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada \u2013 Firstly, they mostly got well abided and secondly, their chemical\ncomposition allows to be used with the crystalline. The technique I use is making\nan \u201ccracked-effect\u201d, and this effect is called craquelee. Not all colors can be\nused with the crystalline necessary in this. In winter I often experimented and\nfrom all these experiments I managed to extract these 4 colors. To remain then\nin the technique, I also have to use these colors, unless I do more experiments\nto find others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – Who is your favorite designer?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – Gio Ponti. It was an important Italian designer, made optical\nthings, a little ’60s style, that are very much found in ceramics. Those are also\nvery recognizable. For me, the style and the shapes also represent a bit my\nchildhood. My grandfather was also inspired by him. So at home it was all full\nof books, catalogs, images, and those kept impressing me as a child. Growing\nup, I discovered that he was a great Italian designer. Vases, carafes, pitchers.\nStaying almost monochromatic, he mostly experimented with shapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – And in your own art?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada \u2013 Flowers and other traditional elements, always the ones from Ernestine’s\nceramics. Same drawings and forms. I use her old sketches. I also intend to\nmake a catalog or a book of the material, because I think it is also part of\nthe heritage of humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – Your inspiration, where does it come from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the joy in the work, and from the culture and landscape that\nsurround me, the colours and the tastes. Also, I always liked to do many\ndifferent things, try out new things, combine various of my passions. In other\nprojects I also worked together with food because I often produced ceramic for\nrestaurants. In private villas I also sometimes worked as a personal cook, I\ndid many different jobs. This is something that characterizes me a little, that\ncontinues in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – Your definition of a well-made pottery?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada \u2013 If it has its own spirit. As you then become more proficient, you\nrealize, that so much of the ceramic around can also have a defect. But that\ndoes not matter, what matters is that the piece carries something, that it has\na spirit. In fact, I also believe that the defect brings additional value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What do you like about your work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – Not having to be in contact with an audience, nor a customer. I\nenjoy the days in the laboratory, feel the music and be on my own, being able\nto put some ideas of mine into the pieces. Then, the thing I don\u2019t like is\ngoing to the customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q \u2013 Anything that would have been useful to know before? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – That it can be useful to do some stretching in the morning, take\ncare of your health, and that fine particles are bad for your health. I worked\ntoo much without masks or anything. I had types of headaches that may have been\ncaused by fine dust. And with my back at the moment, I am not able to practice.\nAt the age of 18, you feel indestructible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From an entrepreneurial point of view, I actually liked to discover\nthings. Learn slowly, step by step. Also, because the numbers of the pieces\nwere really small, which from an entrepreneurial point of view was not too\ncomplicated. At first of course it was a bit stressful, because it was new, but\nin this my father could help me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q – What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about doing\ncraftsmanship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada – Don’t give up when faced with difficulties. Crafting is often\nrisky, we talk about small numbers of pieces, but still structures,\ninvestments, machines are needed. So, my advice would be not to let obstacles\nbring you down. Keep the courage to go ahead and carry on with your project,\nbecause it’s amazing and great having put those obstacles behind you and seeing\nyour own pieces in someone’s shop or someone’s window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TITLES OF THE PICTURES, FROM 2016<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada Franzesi and in the background the superb Ravello<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ada while painting in her attic<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decoration of a dish<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hand decorated plate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coffee cups with ceramic saucer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTRADITION\u201d – Agerola biscuited bread on a bed of rocket and onions with\nbeef heart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFIOR DI FANTASIA\u201d – Quenelle with sheep’s milk ricotta and chopped\npistachios and brown sugar<\/p>\n\n\n\n