Patricija Malakauskaitė
Hello! My name is Patricija. I consider myself a fresh ceramic artist, although clay has been with me since elementary school. While studying Illustration abroad, I fell in love with ceramics and its therapeutic possibilities anew, so I dedicated my last year of studies to it. After returning to Lithuania, I decided to continue nurturing that love, and I still use my two hands to carry on what I started many years ago. I view each piece as a unique form of expression; some satisfy only an aesthetic need, while others grow from the roots of illustration and become everyday stories.
My creative process begins in slow moments when everything seems so beautiful and fragile that I want to immortalize it. At these moments, images, patterns, and symbols come to mind. I start the production process with sculpting—without "framing" myself, I create a dialogue with the piece of clay, kneading, rolling, and shaping it until I am fully satisfied with the final result. After a while, I place the dried pieces into the kiln, where they are fired at 1050°C—the entire firing process takes about 2 days. During firing, the pieces become sturdier and suitable for glazing.
Glaze consists of all the colored details and the glossy surface on the piece—it not only adds beauty but also protects the item from water and food particles. I associate the glazing process with the very first step—decorating the surface of the pieces with imagined visuals in silence so that they become witnesses to unique moments. After glazing, the pieces are fired once more, but this time at 1220°C, which makes them extremely durable. The final step in the journey to a finished piece is sanding the bottom so that when the cup or bowl finds its new home, it feels exceptionally smooth and pleasant to the touch.
