Freya Bramble-Carter is a London-based ceramicist and teacher (with a Fine Art degree from Chelsea College of Art and a famous lineage: her father is the ceramicist Chris Bramble). Elsewhere in London, Pallas Kalamotusis is the Greece-born interior designer (and former curator and writer) behind Studio Krokalia.
Together, though, are Pallas and Freya, makers of colorful, one-off ceramic pieces. It all began when Pallas took one of Freya’s ceramics classes and the two became friends; now they create hand-painted forms for the likes of The New Craftsmen and 8 Holland Street. Each one is ephemeral, often fleeting in its availability, and the only one of its kind, since the duo is not interested in creating repeated forms—a thing to treasure, if you can get your hands on one.
The collaboration is born out of friendship, creativity, and nods to each of the maker’s cultures. According to The New Craftsmen: “Their vessels are first shaped in stoneware clay, expertly thrown on the wheel, and assembled by Freya. After glazing using a tin white glaze, Pallas adorns the vessel, painting in colorful detail with underglaze and oxides. Each unique piece represents a journey of discovery, and the duo aren’t interested in making repeat replicas—the character and love in their work develops naturally and without complicated thought.”
In an interview with Pallas and Freya via The New Craftsmen, the makers wax poetic on what inspires them (Pallas: Greek history, culture, “colors and forms in modernist paintings. The works of Matisse, Picasso, and Greek painters such as Nikos Ghika…..and honestly just everyday, everything! If Freya and I go on a walk together we end up seeing things all over the place that give us new and sometimes absurd ideas.” Freya: Pallas. “The stuff that oozes out of her is very cool. She is very powerful! She can make anything happen.”)
The duo’s dream collaboration? “We would like to make fantastic, huge pieces for an amazing female artist’s music video, where she dances around them and lives out our wildest dreams of being pop stars,” Pallas told The New Craftsmen. “In the end, if she wants, she can smash them because creativity and beauty is eternal and once you have manifested it into something tactile, you can say goodbye to it and start all over again!”
N.B.: Read more about the makers via 8 Holland Street.
And for more hand-painted ceramics we love, see:
- 14 Women Ceramicists with Cult Followings
- Object of Desire: Whimsical Painted Plates by a French Ceramicist
- Functional Art: Hand-Painted Ceramics by California Artist Rebekah Miles
Have a Question or Comment About This Post?
Join the conversation