Hi!
Hi, I'm Maddalena
I create porcelain fairy tales, unique pieces to make everyday life softer, to wear or to use to decorate your home. I shape them by hand and illustrate them one by one in my workshop in the mountains, surrounded by the Dolomites.
I'd like my items to make you feel a little at home. I think of when you will observe them closely and take them in your hands: I create with joy, to give life to moments of wonder and tenderness. Maybe they'll remind you of happy memories or childhood moments you thought you'd forgotten. I like the idea that a cup or a small porcelain creature can evoke something beautiful inside you, something that sometimes you didn't even know you were looking for.
I think there is always a need for a little wonder in everyday life, especially when the daily routine becomes a little too tight, noisy and fast.
MadeInMad® is a light and dreamy world, always here for you.
Wait wait, let me tell you what's going on here. So, do you know about Das or Play-doh? Well, she works a similar clay, very soft and very beautiful. She shapes it with her hands and makes things! For example cups, teapots and saucers, but also things that make me laugh a lot, such as itsy-bitsy monsters and funny little boxes. Then she draws on them and paints them with brushes, some with very small tips. And then she fires them in a very large round oven that is very, very hot! Sometimes something breaks in there and then we are sad for a while, but then we eat a cookie and it immediately gets better. All the things she creates are beautiful to see, but you can use them every day: for example, in the bowls you can eat yogurt and in the cups you can drink caffelatte, although I like tea better.
How it all started
I like to imagine, I've always liked it. In my head a world of images of all kinds unravels. I love to dream, to draw from my inner world and to let it out through my hands, in my creations.
I always wanted to do a creative job and I tried for many years: I studied illustration for children for a long time, without it becoming a profession. In 2020, something happened. By chance, although I do not believe in it, I attended a morning seminar on techniques for working ceramics. I liked it so much that I wanted to continue, but it was the year in which the world stopped: after a few days the time in which we all stayed at home began.
So I bought the materials and kept going on my own: I never stopped. In 2022 I left my open-ended job to devote myself completely to my porcelain fairy tales and MadeInMad®. I create for the sake of creation itself, of matter that becomes something else in my hands. I let myself be guided by my imagination, by the small things I observe, by the moving wonder of nature. I put into it the joy I feel in giving shape to something beautiful and tender, something that can amaze you.
I draw from within myself and put my inner world in porcelain, so that it can also become a bit yours.
The workshop
My workshop, which is also the atelier where I welcome you, is my lair. It is located in a small mountain village, surrounded by the Dolomites.
Zelda and Olivia, my cats, also live there. They keep me company and are often sitting in my lap while I work. There are many books, a wood-burning stove that I love to watch hypnotized by the fire, my little drawers full of washi tape and a piece of furniture that I designed and had made to keep my drawings, pencils and watercolors.
Then there are indoor plants: I talk to them too, because who can grow well without a loving word?
Every day, when I arrive, I have a ritual: I pet the cats, I prepare a liter of tea (sometimes spicy black, or green "raspberry tart") and then I start. I like to surround myself with beautiful and carefully chosen things, which give me serenity, make me smile and almost move me. Does that happen to you too?
Huh, I like beautiful things too, especially flowers, soft biscuits and crispy red apples.
How I work
Porcelain has called to me since I started working with ceramics. Not only for its refinement, but also because you can see through it. And also it is more difficult to work, especially by hand, and I like to learn new things and experiment.
The first porcelain bowls were a little strange and very different from what I expected, but I didn't give up. I tried different kinds of porcelain until, thanks to a colleague, I discovered a butter-colored French porcelain: I fell in love immediately. It is very smooth, perfect, like caressing skin. Very nice to work with, a little haughty, but if you learn to know her she can reward you: I use only her.
For me she is alive, like a small creature that wants to be treated well. The clay absorbs what I transmit to it: for this reason, if I feel very tense or if I have a difficult day, I wait to be calmer before working it. When I create, I'm in a state of tranquility and joy, and I like to think that these feelings remain in the clay.
I work mainly with the slab technique: I roll out a sheet of very thin porcelain, about three millimeters, as if to make cookies. Then I cut the pieces and assemble them by hand, one by one. While firing the porcelain reduces in size and that is why my pieces are so thin and light that you can see through them, but also very, very durable. In fact, in addition to being the most valuable clay, porcelain contains kaolin and quartz, which make it surprisingly resistant: it chips less than ceramics and lasts much longer in time.
It is said that Porcelain has shape memory: if you roll it out in one direction, then knead it again and roll it out in another, it will remember how it was in the beginning, creating cracks and imperfections. The more complex the piece, like in the case of teapots, the easier it is for porcelain to surprise you with its character, if it has not been treated as it would have liked.
Unlike other ceramic bodies, porcelain is fired at high temperatures, in a special oven. Mine is called Ubba (yes, almost all kilns have a name). The pieces are fired twice: the first is done at 980°C and what comes out is called "bisque" (even if you do not eat it). After the first firing, if all the pieces are intact, I move on to decoration or glazing, and then to the second firing at 1250°C. The second firing is very long, lasting at least a day and a half.
I learned to work with porcelain in my own way and I discovered many things after a long time, others I understood after making mistakes. But I think the material has adapted to me, as I have to her.
I spend a lot of time on the decoration, often more than I do on creating the piece. The colors I use can be applied both to the “raw” piece, that is dry but not yet fired, and to the piece that has been fired once (the “biscuit”). I created the shades that define me, mixing the colors together until I found the tones that I felt were mine.
A serving dish with the sgraffito technique, for example, takes about three to four hours to decorate (in addition to the time needed to shape it and fire it).
Sgraffito is one of my favorite techniques: I apply the color freely on the "raw" piece and then, with a very thin metal tip, scrape away everything that is not needed, revealing the design. I really love it because it lets me work in negative, as if I were revealing something that was already there, hidden beneath the surface.
I never use preliminary sketches; I stand in front of the piece and let myself be guided by what emerges, drawing from my inner world and from nature. In addition to sgraffito, I love painting and drawing directly on my pieces, using diluted colors as if they were watercolors, working with transparencies and layers.
After decoration, each item is coated with a transparent glaze that vitrifies the surface, protects the colors and facilitates practical usage. In any case, the porcelain is completely waterproof after just the second firing!
One day I asked her if she could give me a teacup with a saucer, for my afternoon snack. I like them so much because they are different from all the others: there are delicious strawberries on top, they always make my mouth water and I can almost smell them. Or maybe it's the tea? Mmm, that's good.
I’ve become fascinated with lusters: they are special colors that are part of the third-firing technique. They are applied over the glaze after the second firing and then require a third firing at 750°C. They are called lusters because, originally, they had to be polished with a sponge to make them shine.
They are iridescent, brilliant, and shimmering colors. The most well-known is gold luster, made with real gold melted in a special firing resin. Then there are copper, silver, mother-of-pearl, and other colors. Believe it or not, gold never really appealed to me as a color, but now I love it. Using luster in my pieces has allowed me to discover its beauty in a whole new way.
I pay almost obsessive attention to detail. Even though it takes a very long time, I enjoy adding small decorations to the wings of butterflies, scales to fish, and fur to critters. Tiny pieces, such as pendants for necklaces, require a level of patience and precision that’s hard to put into words.
Every object I create is truly one of a kind. Even if I made another similar one, it would never be the same: the shape, the colors, the details, everything contributes to making it unique. The small differences you might notice from one piece to another aren’t flaws, but the mark of something that was made by my own hands.
To get to know me better
In no particular order and with no rhyme or reason:
I could live
In a cottage in the English or Provençal countryside, made of stone, with windows overlooking the landscape and the morning mist.
I like
The smell of bread, the smoke from fireplaces, the sounds of nature.
Seasons
I couldn’t live in a place without seasons, but if autumn were to happen twice a year, that would be just fine with me.
Times of day
I prefer twilight to dawn, when everything is preparing for the night.
I love noticing
The details, with that subtle and beautiful feeling of being one of the few people who are aware of them.
I, on the other hand, like to put on my red polka-dot rubber boots when it rains, to go splish-splashing in the puddles.
Ti presento Maddo
By this point you've already met him: even if he never fully shows himself, he's always there.
Maddo was born in a little notebook with butter-colored pages, but he only came into being on a summer afternoon, many years ago, during a children's illustration workshop.
He immediately started getting into things: adventures, walks, pranks. Gradually, he stayed with me until he became the mascot of MadeInMad®. When I chose the logo, he was my first thought: he is a cute and harmless little creature, cheerful and carefree, yet also capable of moments of depth and tenderness. He's affectionate, a bit funny, and a bit absent-minded.
Maddo loves eating crunchy red-skinned apples, going on picnics, cooking delicious treats. He has a lovely home, small but with everything he needs: a mustard-colored sofa, a beautiful soft red rug, a bookshelf that reaches all the way to the ceiling. The walls are pastel-colored and the garden is lovingly cared for. Nearby there are other little houses, a bit like in certain parts of England where there are few houses and many sheep.
In the afternoon he drinks tea with a few cookies, in the company of his closest friends. He reads adventure books sitting on the windowsill, in the living room. He really enjoys watering flowers and tending his own small vegetable garden.
He doesn’t like people who speak too loudly, asparagus and bitter things. He’s afraid of big, hairy spiders. He doesn’t have a TV and doesn’t listen to the radio, but every once in a while he hums to himself. He lives in a world of his own, and that’s enough for him.
Will you stay with us?
If you are here, maybe it is because you too are looking for a little wonder in everyday life. I’m so glad! You can browse through my porcelain fairy tales and subscribe to the newsletter, which we call Letterina here, to stay updated on the news and receive my kind stories.