March Club Night

​March Club Night - Tuscany, Italy with Eve Hope


After viewing some of Eve’s platters, bowls and cups from her collection from Rampini Ceramiche she proceeded to demonstrate her decoration technique on one of her casserole dishes.

Eve, who has a fine arts degree from UoC, left her job in Auckland in 1992 for 2 months and travelled to Italy to help a her cousin who had opened a restaurant in the Tuscan countryside just south of Florence. Whilst there she was introduced to the Rampini Family who had established a pottery studio close to where she was staying. As Eve has always had an interest in colour and designs of Italian maiolica  she could not resist asking if she might try her hand at decorating. Eve admits her early work was a little  shaky but was not too long before she felt confident enough to begin exploring the colours and experimenting with new designs. She is grateful to the Rampini family for their open acceptance to having a Kiwi designing and decorating Italian ceramics. Their friendship and collaboration worked so well Eve gave up her job in NZ remained as their principle designer until 2008.
    
Her developed skill was on display for us to see and enjoy at our club night. The casserole dish and lid had an external white, tin glaze. The under-glaze stains were in powdered form; Eve mixed them with water to a formula. She also colour mixed to create just the right hue. Her brushes are from Pelo di Bue, bought from Italy, those used for outlining have been specifically cut and shaped for the job and are used by most Maiolica pottery studios in Italy and we all admired the wonderful marks she made with them.

Interestingly, the clay of the dish, the stains and glazes are different from those that are used in Tuscany, so we await in anticipation for their exit from the kiln. We’ll let you know.
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Thank you, Eve, for the demonstration of your skill and some insights into your time in Italy.