Our first story is about TIERRA Cerámicas. Tierra means in the same word soil, earth and also the place where you were born. Our friend Paula Tapia is a Potter who was inspired by her own artist mother and aunt. At 15 years old she started pottery at school and by 20 she would create little pieces at home, put them in a shoe box and travel by bus to an atelier where she would pay to use a kiln. At 22 she started selling her pieces to raise money to get her own kiln and after started a pottery atelier in a borrowed space.
Not far from TIERRA she studied Geology but soon enough she found that her passion was somewhere else. Although this allowed her to discover what lately would be her logo: the mineral crystal. She didn’t want to study the soil “that was so boring” but instead to make something with it, to connect with it, to shape it, to touch it. That felt good.
Paula was born in San Juan Province in Argentina alongside Los Andes Mountain range. The mountain is a landscape that you see all around you. Dust, rocks, air, dryness, heat in summer, snow in winter, lots of colours, quietness and harmony. Absolute immensity.
“I believe the mountain makes you humble and connects you with your place in the world” “You can see how little you are and how majestic she is: stable and permanent”. How much has the mountain seen? How much she will still?
With all this in her rucksack she decided to travel and live abroad. First in the UK (where we met for the first time) later to Barcelona taking classes with Martin Loew and even getting training in Copenhagen with the great potter Tortus. After this she went back to San Juan and opened TIERRA for the first-time teaching pottery as no one has done there before: pottery’s wheel.
But adventure was calling again and after a year and a half she felt she was ready to open her own TIERRA in Barcelona, the place she felt inspired and challenge her with mountain and sea, artists and football.
After a very successful co-working space experience, in April 2020 Paula is launching her own Solo Atelier TIERRA Cerámicas between Sarria and Gracia neighbourhood in Barcelona. There, Paula shares her knowledge with air of San Juan Province, of herself, of the joy in the process, of harmony and the amazing environment, with mountain feeling. There is a very special creative vibe were people feel free enough to express themselves with the clay to create and to connect with the earth in their hands. To make The Andes with their hands and that makes TIERRA Cerámicas absolutely unique.
Thanks for inspiring us in the search of ourselves and to take risks. We can see is possible to live your dream, so we want to follow. Let’s shape our path!
P.S. (Thanks to Paula’s TIERRA Pottery school in San Juan now five of her former students are teaching pottery with a wheel. To inspire keeps the wheel turning!)
Find out more about Paula: https://www.tierraceramicas.com/en/