Chiara Caselli's Tattooed Ceramics Blend Myth and Material

Italian designer Chiara Caselli (b. 1990) from Sassuolo, the Italian tile capital, moved to Amsterdam after studying architecture in Venice, where she founded Ccontinua. Her practice uses ceramics to explore spirituality. A recent collaboration with designer-chef Yacinth Pos reinterprets pagan rituals through kitchen tools in raw black clay, highlighting the healing and gastronomic properties of sea buckthorn, yarrow, and horsetail. Caselli often works with Mamt (Francesco Carrasso), her partner, who hand-tattoos her ceramics with suns, moons, sirens, and stylized organic forms. Their series White Lava, awarded at Edit Napoli 2022, mixes five types of stoneware and sands from Stromboli, Lanzarote, and Wadi Rum. In 2023, they created Ossa, a collection of hand-sculpted vases mimicking bone texture, and a site-specific installation for Edit Napoli titled I was looking for the mermaids, featuring white and blue pieces with bas-relief sirens referencing Mediterranean legends.