About Fernando Durao: 35 Years of Studio Ceramics in Buenos Aires

“I am Fernando Durao, a professional ceramicist and potter. From my workshop in Buenos Aires, I dedicate myself to creating studio ceramics and unique sculptural pieces in stoneware. With more than three decades of craft, my work has been chosen by leading figures of Argentine interior design and shown in venues such as Casa FOA, always putting purity of form and design first.”

First Encounter with the Potter's Wheel

Around the age of 12, I discovered a ceramics workshop. My parents, always eager to introduce me to the different arts, found an amateur ceramicist near where we lived. When I walked into the workshop, the first thing I saw was someone working at the wheel. From that moment on I was struck by how astonishing the transformation of the material was. Of course, back then I had no idea how laborious and persistent you have to be to master clay, even just a little.

Those were times without the immediacy of information and entertainment we have today. Maybe because I got bored easily in those years, I went looking in ceramics, music or painting for a refuge so as not to fall into that dreaded phrase: “I'm bored!”

From Chacarita to the Infinite World of Clay

I started taking classes at a workshop in Chacarita, Buenos Aires. I rode the bus every Saturday morning, almost an hour each way, just to immerse myself for two hours in a magical but unknown universe. Just when I thought the wheel was what I liked best, I discovered the different clays, the types of firings, the glazes… the chemistry! This world is infinite, I thought. And it is.

Then came ceramics school. I spent a few years meeting many people and different perspectives on the craft, while I was already making and selling my first pieces.

Real Learning: Years of Trial and Error

But the truth is that I learned the most from daily work. Days, months and years of constant experiments throughout my whole adolescence. It was while working that I enjoyed myself the most and made countless mistakes (some very interesting ones) that helped me find what I wanted to make at that time: vases, teapots, cups and a bit of everything.

Mass Production and the Need to Return to the Source

In the early 2000s, I began producing tableware at a medium scale. I designed and then commissioned the die and mold making to speed up production, while always keeping the focus on design.

This stage, although a great learning experience, was not entirely satisfying and lasted until about 2015. Serial production took me away from the pleasure of shaping clay. Over time I felt disconnected, with the feeling that I was devaluing the material and the ceramicist's craft.

Fortunately, I never left the wheel for long. That kept me alive in ceramics! This doesn't mean that making many identical pieces is wrong; it simply wasn't good for me.

There is a moment when working with clay where I feel I am in the perfect time and place. It is hard to explain, but very easy to recognize when it happens.

Passing On the Craft: Teaching and Research

Driven by that need to reconnect, and by the economic ups and downs of the country, I decided to close down serial production and focus on teaching, something I had already been alternating with my work. It was and still is something that gives me enormous satisfaction: being able to pass on what I learned in almost 35 years of working with clay.

In my free moments at the workshop, I sketched and practiced intensely. And when I say intensely, I mean making several pieces of which almost all were discarded. Practice, patience and persistence are hugely important parts of my work.

With every firing I did for my students, I researched different formulas to achieve the unique color and texture I use today. That research by trial and error, in both the pieces and the glazes, took me about three years. It is part of the identity I always looked for in my work.

The Birth of My Studio Ceramics Collections

Today I am deeply satisfied with the results, especially with the collection I decided to call “Unikas Black”.

Every piece is truly one of a kind. I use different amounts of clay for a design I decide on in the moment, looking for seemingly incompatible forms to come together harmoniously. Each work is treated individually, but conceived to converse as a group.

The most fascinating thing about this process is that the people who buy my pieces bring their own eye to them. They combine them in ways that would never have occurred to me, achieving unique results in their spaces. It is immensely rewarding to receive photos from my clients showing me how my work transforms their rooms.

Improvisation as a Method

Improvisation is, today, my most enjoyable task. Perhaps clay is the simplest and at the same time most eccentric material I know. And, as often happens to me, it always has something new to surprise and teach me.

I am currently still researching new clays and colors that I hope to present very soon.

Thank you for taking the time to read part of my journey as a ceramicist and potter. Soon I will share news about the new work that is born each month in the workshop.

If you would like to see my current work, I invite you to explore my collections