We were lucky to catch up with Chiara Della Santina recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Chiara thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
My first experience with clay dates back to my childhood years, when one of our primary school teachers organised a workshop on traditional ceramics. On this occasion, we were taught how to make small earthenware artefacts, mimicking ancient Etruscan ones. To this day, I still remember the excitement and fascination I felt on that occasion. Growing up, I had fun exploring different crafts and means of expression, such as painting, drawing, photography, decoupaging, knitting and very briefly silversmithing. This helped me gain a better understanding around my natural talents in addition to also giving me a varied set of skills that prove to be very useful to this day.
Regardless of my many passions, the experience I had with clay as a child stuck with me through the years and I kept waiting for the right time to dive into this craft more deeply. In my late 20’s I finally decided to invest a little bit of money on some private lessons at a ceramic studio in a town nearby. From the very first class, I felt a deep sense of belonging and surprising familiarity with this material. I had finally found a medium that really spoke to me and which felt incredibly close to my heart. I seemed to innately know what to do or how to handle it and I just couldn’t stop picturing in my head all the things that I could make with it. The possibilities where endless and so were the challenges but I finally felt like I had found the perfect medium to express my ideas and visions. After a period spent learning this way, I took the courage to ask a local ceramic artist if I could join him in his studio, offering my help in exchange for his wisdom. This decision allowed me to get an idea of what it was like to work as a full-time artist. Of the joys but more importantly of the challenges that this kind of life presents. As time went on, I gradually gained more confidence in my skills and in 2017 I finally felt ready to set up my own home-studio and start selling my first pieces to local shops and people in the area. I realised very early on that that was how I wanted to spend my days and how I wanted to make a living. After all, I had already been self-employed for a few years and it didn’t feel like a huge change for me in that respect. Alongside my hands-on training, I also did a lot of online research and read many books on materials, techniques and tools.
With hindsight, I really value the time that I invested in my training. If I could go back, I don’t think that I would want to speed up this part of the learning process at all. Actually, I would make it last a bit longer if I could. There was a lot of value in being able to slowly get acquainted with the ebb and flow of this profession and in having someone with a life-long experience in this field to ask questions to and with whom to share my fears and doubts. I also had the opportunity to explore different styles and techniques without the stress of making sure that everything that I was making was good enough to be sold. Having a livelihood that depends on your art, although rewarding and exciting, can also become a restriction in one’s ability to express and explore their creativity freely. That carefreeness and creative freedom that I experienced back at the beginning of my journey is something I sometimes miss nowadays that I’m a full time artist.
I think the skills that proved to be the most essential in the early stages are my determination and commitment to the craft, as well as my innate manual skills. I was a quick learner and I didn’t fear making mistakes and learning from them. My resilience and my pragmatism were also two very valuable resources, especially with the parts that have to do with running a small business. Learning to deal with rejection is also very important, as well as being able to take care of yourself, both on a physical and mental level.
Luckily, I didn’t really experience any major obstacles during my training process, although I also believe that one never really stops being a student in this craft, so I believe that my learning process is far from being over and it will continue for as long as I live.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Chiara Della Santina. I’m an Italian artist and the founder of Claire Lune. My works mainly consist of ceramics and abstract paintings. I work from my home-studio in Tuscany, where I moved back in 2015 after having spent over 10 years living in Florence, Dublin and London.
In 2018 I founded Claire Lune, which originally started off as any other small business in ceramics, with a focus on tableware and functional pieces. However, as time passed, my vision became more clear and Claire Lune became a niche brand of fine art ceramics and original home décor pieces, specifically designed to elevate daily rituals and to create a living space that encourages a slow and mindful approach to the day to day life.
Overall, my objects and artworks are thought to help you style your home more mindfully and intentionally, allowing you to crate a space that can accomodate your practices and integrate them in your home décor. My Luna series, for example, includes small to medium size sculptures that symbolise the archetypes of the New and Full Moon. They are perfect to use in your meditation space at home or in a yoga studio, but they can also be displayed as part of your home décor, acting as a subtle and elegant hint at your spiritual journey, softening the line between rituality and interior décor. Another example are my Ištar sculptures. They are hollowed sculptures inspired by the feminine archetype of the Mesopotamian Goddess Ištar. They can be used as elegant decorative pieces but they can also turn into objects of functional art when used to hold ritual accessories (incense sticks, lighters, matches, sage bundles, etc), helping you keep your house tidy and, again, include your rituals in your home décor.
With regards specifically to my ritual objects (incense burners, ritual dishes, ritual kits, etc.), their uniqueness lies in the fact that they combine art and rituality in a way that is engaging and that supports intuition and creativity. For instance, my ritual dishes present a versatile design that allows you to use them as incense holders, smudge sticks or palo santo burners as well as card and crystal holders, just to mention a few ideas. They accommodate most sizes of incense sticks and the plate is big enough to allow many different options of use, according to your inspiration and intuition. Another example is my “Aequilibrium” incense burner. Aequilibrium” (Latin word for “balance”) is an artistic incense burner that symbolises, in its shape and in the way it works, the concept of harmony and balance. Aesthetically, this piece combines two shapes, the circle and the square, which represent the spiritual and the material world, respectively. The concept of balance is also evoked by the spheric stick holder, which can be placed anywhere on or around the square and which requires the user to take a moment to balance it, in order for it to hold the incense stick in place. The idea behind this piece was to create a versatile object that would give you an opportunity to be creative in your home rituals and encourage you to interact with it in a way that would make you want to slow down, focus on the breath and on your mindful movements.
There is increasing evidence that slowing down and being more mindful is necessary if we want to write a new paradigm in which we live a healthier, more inspired and more balanced life. A new definition of spirituality is also taking place all around the world, which is resulting in more and more people having the need to create a dedicated space for their daily rituals, directly in their homes. The widespread of meditation rooms and the increase in the demand for ritual objects are further proof of this new trend.
On a personal level, my own journey in self-enquiry and spirituality began about 20 years ago, after my encounter with Taoism. Over the years, the more I got to explore the depths of my subconscious and the more I became aware of my own spiritual language, the more I reacquainted with my creative side. I could observe, first hand, how living a more mindful life results in increased levels of creativity and intuition. I then observed that, as I was living my life more intentionally, I felt the need for beautiful, unique ritual objects that could allow me to create beauty and have an intuitive attitude in my moments of contemplation. I also noticed how important it was that my home would reflect a more mindful lifestyle and that its décor would contemplate daily rituals and moments of insight.
I strongly believe that anything can become a ritual in its own right if done with the right intention. Quoting Thich Nhat Hanh “No matter what you’re doing, you can choose to do it with your full presence, with mindfulness and concentration; and your action becomes a spiritual practice”. For this reason, I also believe that including fine art objects in our daily practices, as well as having a mindful and inspired home décor, can indirectly promote an attitude of attention and intention and that it can also help us find countless occasions to be fully present and to cultivate a mindset of gratitude within the chaos of the mundane .
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is probably the level of freedom and independence that are an integral part of this path. Also, being able to connect with people in a way that bypasses logic and words is another aspect that I really appreciate of this job.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
A few years since the launch of Claire Lune as a small brand of functional ceramics, I realised that something needed to change. I wasn’t happy with the way that I was doing things and with how I was working in general. My creativity and inspiration were suffocated and I felt like I was running in circles in order to be able to stay on top of everything and that, no mater what I was doing, I wasn’t holding the reins of my business in the way that I wanted to. I wanted to be able to work more slowly and intentionally. I wanted to be able to curate everything to the smallest detail in order to give my clients a truly unique and curated experience and to create original objects of the highest quality possible. I also wanted to be able to have time to be inspired, to explore and try new things, which before I couldn’t really do.
So, at this point I decided to hire a professional business mentor, the talented Katherine Suarez from Nomad Atelier, to help me redefine my mission, be clear about my values and, on a more practical level, review and rewrite my business plan. We worked together for about one year, at the end of which Claire Lune was profoundly transformed and became the brand that it is today. I would be lying if I said that it was always easy. The work and effort that I had to put in was at times rather challenging. But, most of all, this type of challenge was hard on an emotional and mental level. I had to be willing to take risks and trust that my vision was going to work out. I had to push myself beyond my own limiting beliefs and question the way that I was doing things. Really question it. I had to let go of past clients that were no longer in line with the direction that I wanted to go in. I had to make a few extra investments over which I lost countless nights of sleep but which, with hindsight, are probably the best choices I could have made for the future of my business. Now, I am finally working in a way that is aligned with my core values. I feel proud of my works and I see myself reflected in most aspects of my business.
Looking back, as scary as it was, this was probably the best choice that I have made in the 5 years that I’ve been running my business.
Resilience is a quality that cannot be overlooked in the life of a self-employed person, let alone of an artist. Change is part and parcel of our profession, of our nature and the sooner one learns to work with it instead of against it, the better it is.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://clairelune.it/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/claireluneceramics/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClaireLuneCeramics
- Other: https://www.pinterest.it/claire_lune_/
Image Credits
Chiara Della Santina