In Studio with Stela Ivanova
First of all: congratulations on the 2nd prize in the International Ceramics competition of Castellamonte, Stela!
Thank you, Evelyne! I’m proud because this award is recognition on the international level where I can join in with some good artists. At the opening of the exhibition, I was able to observe how visitors interacted with my piece, which made me very pleased.
Let’s start with your biography: You are both Bulgarian and Portuguese. Would you tell us about your life so far and how you came to be a ceramic artist?
I was born and raised in Bulgaria. My grandfather was a shepherd, he carved figures in wood and drew very well. My grandmother spun the wool from our sheep, knitted and wove textiles on her loom. My mother ran a serigraphy workshop, where I spent whole afternoons watching what she did. At primary school, one day, I made such a good clay figure that the teacher took it to an exhibition. Later in Lisbon as a student at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University, I made a clay architectural model and felt the fantastic plasticity of the medium.
(Evelyne Schoenmann)