ARANTZA GONZÁLEZ MACHUCA

Cluster Crafts Exhibitor | Young Talent Spotlight | 2024

 

In 2022, she spent a month and a half in the Amazon, where she learnt techniques from native potters of the area. From them she learned how to collect clay and how to work the materials of their natural surroundings. Arantza's pieces are a testimony to the environment in which her materials are found, and they give an account of a transformed reality that brings us closer to the most elemental nature.

 

SEASHELL ASH BOWL

 

Arantza González (b.1995) is a Chilean artist currently living and studying in London. She spent three years at Escola Massana in Barcelona, where she obtained her BA in Mural Arts. She recently graduated  from an MA in Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art, where she’s been specializing in glazes made from natural resources, such as seaweed and seashells collected on the Chilean coast.

MORANDI BOTTLES

 
 

SEASHELL ASH BOWL

 
 
The expression I seek through my practice is one that manages to merge the different levels in which I feel more strongly the interaction between my being and the landscape. I grew up in a natural environment that I managed to become part of as I developed, feeling to this day the reminiscences of an early childhood that strongly identifies with nature and finds meaning in its expressions. That is why, at this moment in my life, it is through the potter’s wheel where I find the peace that my mind demands to express myself. And in natural glazes, the expression that gives meaning to the echo of my deepest connections with the environment. I hope that my creations show respect for the place where their materials were sourced, and at the same time, bring the users closer to a simple and sincere bond with the natural elements from where I belong; the Chilean coast.
— Arantza González Machuca

NATURAL GLAZE POTS

 

SEASHELL ASH PLATE

 

MORANDI BOTTLE

 
 

SEAWEED GLAZE PROCESS

SEASHELL ASH GLAZE BOWL 2

SEAWEED ASH GLAZE CUPS

 

SEASHELL GLAZE PROCESS