Piwoniart is the studio of Andzia from Toruń, who makes handmade ceramics with a big sense of humour and no trace of prudishness: playful, mischievous, sometimes a little cheeky. In Toruń she also runs workshops and a ceramics coworking space. Locus Artis in Gdańsk has her mugs shaped like a woman’s torso – hard not to smile at.
Andzia started working with clay six years ago, in her student dorm room. From the start she was drawn to the human body – at the same time she was writing her bachelor’s thesis on female sexuality in painting. Today she has a studio in the Bydgoskie Przedmieście district of Toruń, where she makes her pieces and runs workshops.
What she loves most is hand-building, working with shape and small details. She doesn’t hide the colour of the clay or the fingerprints left while forming. She also loves the moment she spots some silly phrase she can write on a mug. In her words, she wants you to pick up her mug and laugh the way you do at a silly meme from a friend.
When she opened the studio, she felt most at home building by hand. Later she looked for a way to make pieces she could repeat – the potter’s wheel turned out not to be for her, but slip casting started to work.
What she brought to Locus Artis.
To Locus Artis Andzia brought mugs shaped like a woman’s torso – a gift for someone with a sense of humour, or for yourself. She uses these mugs herself every day – in her view they combine practicality and beauty.
Each mug holds about 450 ml and is dishwasher-safe. In Toruń Andzia runs ceramics workshops and a ceramics coworking space.
In her workshops she shows how clay behaves, but doesn’t turn them into a ceramics exam. The point is to get to know the material, make something of your own and have a good time, without the pressure to be perfect.