Paola Paronetto's paper clay technique and Veuve Clicquot collaboration

Paola Paronetto (born 1965 in Pordenone, Italy) has developed a distinctive paper clay technique over the past twenty years, combining clay with cellulose fiber to create lightweight, seemingly fragile ceramics with smooth and textured surfaces in earthy tones. Her unique recipe involves drying clay, breaking it into fragments, dissolving them in water, and adding cellulose fiber. The pieces are then textured with recycled cardboard. Paronetto refined her method through trial and error after studying in Italian ceramic centers such as Gubbio, Deruta, Faenza (under master Giovanni Cimatti), and Florence. Today, all production takes place in her studio in Porcia, near Pordenone. The process is slow and meditative, influenced by weather and temperature, allowing for extreme, airy forms with an 'imperfection' effect. The paper clay has lower shrinkage and greater elasticity, enabling audacious shapes assembled from dry pieces. Recently, Paronetto created a limited-edition set of six boxes for Veuve Clicquot's Millesimato Cuvée La Grand Dame 2015, in six shades from her 86-color palette. This collaboration follows those of Yayoi Kusama (for La Grand Dame 2012), Karim Rashid, and Tom Dixon. She also produced three monumental bottle sculptures over one meter tall, which required a year of experimentation to master.