This series, COLLECTIBLE In-Depth, unveils the backstage of contemporary creation. Tackling various topics from personal designer processes to the position of collectible design on the global design market, COLLECTIBLE In-Depth offers different views to suit all tastes. Today we speak with Clara Valdes.

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COLLECTIBLE: If you were to collaborate with someone outside of the design scene, from another industry, who would you pick?

Clara Valdes: For me, meeting and talking to different people is the key to designing sensible objects. Working around the art of the table, I like to go and meet cooks, winemakers and producers, to understand how they interact with the soil and the clay. To understand how my shapes can echo theirs. 

C: Where do you take your inspiration from? 

CV: The moments of sharing around a meal are the ones that inspire me the most. I'm passionate about talking about what we taste, what we feel and what we imagine. I like to imagine a process that would start with a taste to design shapes, colours and textures. It's as if my objects could convey a feeling. In this way, I create a back-and-forth between my containers and their possible contents.

C: What are the key questions you ask yourself before starting to conceptualize a new piece?

CV: When I start creating, I try to be as spontaneous as possible. I quite like to let the material guide my shapes. I rarely go through drawing, and often through doing. I like to get into the material and let instinct develop shapes that I draw on my imagination, my tastes and encounters. This allows me to create rather free forms, rough, sometimes crude, which I  appreciate. So I'd say that I always ask myself whether my object is going to be sincere and convey an energy at a given moment.

C: Can you briefly describe your process?

CV: I create moulds in raw clay, drawing the shapes of the object's interior and exterior void. Then I cast them in jesmonite, which I colour in the mass using natural pigments that I make (charcoal, earth, rock, plants). The gesture of the hand leaves irregularities, traces and holes on the object, reflecting the encounter between the hand - the clay - the resin. My objects are then sanded and waxed, and the clay used for the mould is recycled so that the process can be repeated to build new pieces.