Κατερίνα Λατούφη

Katerina Latoufi adopts traditional techniques to create objects with a contemporary twist.

Discovery

Just as I had envisioned an expansion of our homeware selection on the site, one of our team passed by the atelier of Katerina Latoufi in Petralona, central Athens.

Trained as an architect, this artist has run her own studio creating custom made interior designs including handmade furniture and a dazzling array of ceramics.

Her passion is for crafting pottery utilizing organic raw materials which were historically used for this medium. She also adopts traditional techniques to create objects with a contemporary twist. Some of her product lines recall the craft of basket weaving and their reinterpretation into ceramic forms either scratched with geometric patterns or crested with an actual woven element.

Her prolific range includes vases, tiles, pots and vessels some primitively rough and raw, others partially licked with luscious colour, some others brushed with a black matte glaze.

Every single piece of Katerina’s work is unique therefore only a few pieces are available at any one time. We are proud to showcase one of her latest creations, the Tripoda earth pots. These containers, some of which are deliberately small enough to be held in a palm, are inspired by the eponymous ancient Greek three legged vessels used in antiquity for sacrificial offerings.

Katerina wishes to transpose that somewhat macabre context by intending their use as a planter, thus suggesting a positive offering. The smooth pots are decorated with delicate geometric patterns. The earthware clay is crafted into a porous slate to permit watering and drying of the soil within.

Her works are baked at 1030 Celsius twice, once for the clay to set and the second time for the object to take its final shape.

Every single piece of Katerina’s work is unique therefore only a few pieces are available at any one time.

Memory

Katerina studied Architecture at Kingston University, London and then worked there as an architect, continuing this profession afterwards in Athens.

She credits London with forming her creativity. “London is a real school for design. I learnt how to realize each idea from the beginning to the end, always justifying everything”.

She began ceramics merely as a hobby and was instantly impressed that this one involved working with her hands and not on a computer.

“Pottery offers satisfaction when you complete something after great effort, turning earth into an object”.

Narration

Katerina is inspired by the colours, the lights of Greece and the shapes of archaic objects seen in museums or in everyday life, like a traditional jug in a village. She always carries a piece of paper and a pencil and she starts sketching whenever her imagination is intrigued.

“Pottery offers satisfaction when you complete something after great effort, turning earth into an object”.

Her works are aesthetically showcased in her architectural studio as Katerina considers presentational context to be very important.

A trip to Morocco got her wandering why Greek designers are inspired by what they see abroad and not what is right in front of them in their own country.

Her work has a wonderful variety to it and a profoundly Greek soul.