Beautiful Ceramics Made by Hand and Heart

I would like to introduce you to my friend Kiara Matos.

Kiara’s mom had always had the dream of working with ceramics. Her father, trying the best for his wife, had prepared a little workshop in their house in San Cristobal, Venezuela. Unfortunately, Kiara’s mom could not really make use of the workshop her husband had prepared for her. Her work, house obligations and four kids were too much of an obstacle for her to pursue her passion.  For many years, Kiara and her siblings used the workshop as their “very original playground”, full of different earth materials, colorful paints, and even an oven!

Kiara was not realizing how the scent of the clay was little by little permeating her, until finally, at the age of sixteen, she felt a strong desire to give life to all the materials which had been waiting for years around her.

It was more than twenty years ago, when Kiara asked her mom if she could use the workshop as it was originally intended. She just wanted to give it a try. She has never stopped working with clay since that day. Using nature as her principal source of inspiration, she creates playful compositions full of freshness, harmony and elegance.

Kiara uses clay as a material with endless possibilities, from dinnerware to decorative work, wall pieces, lamps and even jewelry. Very recently she has been selected to include her work as part of the Museum of Arts and Design store in New York. Although she is very excited about it, she is already thinking about her next steps. For example, she is pondering how to introduce her colored pottery as part of home interior design, in collaboration with architects and designers, an idea that I loved. Her creation process reminded me a lot of my own work as an architect. No matter the medium, the energy that comes from caring and attention to detail speaks louder than words!

Although I know she does not need it… we wish her lots of luck.

You can see more of Kiara's work here.