SEDIMENTO

• Could you please present yourself in a few words ?

I am Maud Téphany, one of the founders of the Sedimento ceramic workshop. I am French and my business partner is Ursula Duarte. She is Portuguese. I studied plastic arts before  to teach it in college.

One day I decided to change my professional life and to follow a multimedia training in web design. I got my diploma and I left for Lisbon to take care of the artistic direction and the website of the French Institute in Portugal. I had been to this city several times before. I chose to settle there 14 years ago. My passion for ceramics came quite late. In 2015, I followed my first ceramic workshop, it was a love at first sight. The kind of love story that keeps you awake at night.

I started at Caulino as a pupil and I became a teacher at the end. I met the talented Ursula who soon became also a teacher in this creative studio. It soon became clear that we could do something good together and fly on our own. Sedimento was born like this in 2017. Our students are between 20 and 50 years old, there are more women than men. And it’s always curious to see that women create pragmatic and useful things related to the world of home when men prefer to turn to sculpture and experimentation by cultivating the abstract. It is a pleasure to teach, in Portuguese, and mix the cultural backgrounds of our students.

• Why did you choose ceramics as the way to express yourself ? 

Ceramic is the soil, it’s infinite. As infinite as cooking can be. We play with the ingredients, we mix them and we observe the result. I’m still in a learning phase, and I hope I never finish it somewhere. That’s what feeds that passion as well. I don’t have a style, I don’t want to have any, it doesn’t interest me. The fear of getting bored leads me to mix the colors, starting from a geometrical form to something completely abstract. I don’t want to make the product but rather the unique and experimental sculpture.

• What do you think of the fact that ceramics became a real trend ? 

I think that is great. That people are tired of IKEA etc. There is a revaluation of the savoir-faire. Artists are also starting to use ceramics and it’s for the best. A true culture of ceramics is created.

• Where can we find your ceramic pieces ? 

For the moment only in Portugal. I work for private clients as well as for restaurants or home decorators. For transportation issues it’s still complicated for the moment to sell online. I only produce in small quantities. Ursula (Ursula Duarte) is more in useful creation when I am more in the object and in the art direction. Sometimes we reverse the roles and very often we consult each other. We like to work with artists like Hugo Cantegrel for example. He came to make a residence with us the past year. 

There are also 5 of my unique pieces, 5 archaeological decorative vases at THE OTHER SHOP. These vases are in sandstone and are part of a collection of 8 pieces. 

• What are your future projects? 

A ceramic shark skeleton from 2 meters to 2 meters 50 for a store. A real challenge, but it’s very interesting. A project for a hotel that should open soon in Cascais. 

T/O/S.