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April 2023

Homo Faber Guide - Ceramicist - France - CRAFT STORIES

Silver Sentimenti, couture ceramic

When the Sentimentis christened their son Silver, it was no doubt with the inkling that he would follow a creative path. The precious metal of silver combined with Sentimenti, meaning emotions, certainly foretells an artistic leaning. Yet Silver’s fire, passion and patience even outshine his name.

 

To say that Silver Sentimenti creates decorative objects in ceramic would be too simplistic. They are more akin to sculptures, but even this doesn’t do justice to the multitude of skills he employs. He has invented a means of embellishing ceramic, combining soft and hard into unique creations using techniques that he alone masters. How these objects came to be, their raison d’être, is the reflection of his experience, moving back and forth between couture and ceramic until the day he decided to no longer choose between the two. Let’s say he is an “ennobler of ceramic”, for want of a term that fully encompasses his knowledge and expertise, and the many professions - pattern-making, corsetry, haute couture, embroidery, ceramic, sculpture and costume design - that he has learned and practiced throughout the years.

 

Silver Sentimenti grew up surrounded by fabric. His mother, having previously headed an atelier in Bologna, Italy, ran her own sewing business from the family home. He observed everything with great attention: the women, the materials, the swift, expert movements of his mother’s hands as she measured, cut, stitched and fitted, sending her clients home even more beautiful than when they arrived, dressed in garments made especially for them.

 

When the time came, Silver Sentimenti chose to study ceramic sculpture at the Istituto d'Arte per la Ceramica "Gaetano Ballardini" in Faenza, graduating in 1989. From there, he went on to earn a diploma in stagecraft, in 1994, from the Accademia di Belle Arti in Bologna. Three years later he was offered a placement in Paris at Atelier Caraco, a specialist in haute couture, stage and opera costumes. He stayed there ten years. “Imagine! I’d just arrived from Italy and found myself in the next room to Christian Lacroix, who was making the costumes for Marcel Maréchal’s production of Les Enfants du Paradis at Théâtre du Rond-Point.” Silver Sentimenti would encounter many other great names during his time at Caraco, where he learned the various techniques of couture and costume-making. But times change: when the leading houses began to appoint young designers as their creative directors, despite their lack of experience and, more so, decorum, he left fashion and went back to his first love: ceramic.

 

“I turned my back on haute couture to begin a new stage in my journey; one that would combine my professional and artistic experiences. I came back to ceramic for its temporality. There’s no cheating with clay, no shortcuts. It’s a living material, you can’t go against its will. You can’t make drying times shorter than they are. In couture, we were expected to produce two weeks of work in three days. You can’t do that with ceramic.” So as to refresh his skills, and learn throwing, in 2014 Silver Sentimenti enrolled at Arts et Techniques Céramiques in Paris, where he studied under Grégoire Scalabre. That same year he set up Silver Sentimenti Céramique, his company which he moved to Normandy in 2018.

 

Silver Sentimenti works with Burgundy and Noron stoneware, as well as Bavarian and Limoges porcelain, all of which must be fired at a high temperature. “There are three types of clay: faience, stoneware and porcelain. The only difference is their composition and, for stoneware and porcelain, the additional challenge that the higher the temperature, the more likely they are to deform and develop defects.” Not that it matters: he prefers them because, he says, “they have greater depth.”

 

Preparatory sketches aren’t part of his creative process. “I sit down at the wheel and let the objects in my mind take shape.” Their archetypal form is made singular by the leather he weaves into them. ”I throw the piece on the wheel then, once it has reached a stage in drying known as leather-hard, I pierce it with as many as 4,000 holes, sometimes more. When the ceramic itself is ready, after the first then second firings, I switch hats and become the “ennobler”, using the holes as a canvas to add woven or stitched embellishments. It’s as though I’ve gone back to what I was doing 20 years ago, but the other way round. Whereas previously I sculpted clothes and costumes, now I create decorative works informed by textile.”

 

Silver Sentimenti possesses a delicacy of thought that transpires in his ceramics. “What I do is part dance, part meditation. Throwing pottery is a meditative activity. Over time and with experience, the gestures become ingrained in our body and our brain, and this produces a series of movements that can be quite poetic. You’re entirely focused yet at the same time you’re somewhere else. I truly believe a handcrafted object has a soul. The artisan’s hand breathes life into a piece.”

Notes for editors

 

Homo Faber Guide places craftsmanship at your fingertips. Curated by the Michelangelo Foundation, it is an online, searchable platform, which showcases artisans, ateliers, manufacturers, museums, galleries and experiences linked to contemporary craftsmanship in Europe and beyond. The platform connects craft enthusiasts, collectors, clients, curious travellers and designers with crafting excellence. Discover over 2200 talented artisans, from glass blowers to mask makers, paper sculptors to silversmiths. Newly selected artisans appear weekly, and new countries are added every three months. homofaber.com or download the app Homo Faber on the Apple Store or Google Play Store.

The Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship is a non-profit institution based in Geneva which champions contemporary craftspeople worldwide with the aim of promoting a more human, inclusive and sustainable future. The foundation seeks to highlight the connections between craft, the wider arts and the design world. Its mission is to both celebrate and preserve craftsmanship and its diversity of makers, materials and techniques, by increasing craft’s everyday recognition and its viability as a professional path for the next generations. From the engaging educational programme Homo Faber Fellowship to its signature digital project the Homo Faber Guide and international exhibition the Homo Faber Event, the foundation is fostering a cultural movement centred on master artisans and rising stars.

michelangelofoundation.org 

homofaber.com

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Silver Sentimenti Artisan
©Anthony Girardi
Silver Sentimenti Artisan
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Silver Sentimenti Artisan
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Silver Sentimenti Artisan
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