Paula is a Brazilian ceramicist based in London, graduated in Architecture and in love with design and colours.
Her journey with clay began in her childhood, painting little pots and bringing them home – loads of them. She has always been on the artsy side, drawing since she can remember and making and selling handmade jewellery at the age of 12.
After working in London as an Architect and starting pottery as a hobby, in 2018, Paula and her husband decided to move to Singapore. Once in Singapore she wasn’t able to practice as an Architect and had the opportunity to focus only in ceramics while juggling her 2 babies.
During the almost 5 years living in Asia, Paula took every opportunity to work with pottery in all the countries she was travelling to and to find inspiration from other artists.
Because she truly believes in the power of personal and handmade art she founded ‘From Paula, with Love’ in Singapore and began to sell her pieces.
In 2023, she moved back to London with the family and also transferred her company to the UK.
As a mum she was accumulating piles and piles of drawings from her children and loads of them were going to the bin. So she had the idea of transferring children’s drawings to ceramics and founded the brand ‘Illustrated by Little Hands’.
Meanwhile, many people seemed interested in not only buying her pottery pieces but also learning how to work with ceramics. She then launched the third front of her business “The Pottery Club”, offering one-off workshops in restaurant and pubs for adults.
She also noticed that there was strong demand from parents to offer the same experience to their children, which was when she created “The Pottery Club Kids”, offering the same concept of workshops but adjusted for kids.
Paula is fascinated with the idea that one can produce functional pieces for day-to-day life using one’s own hands. She believes these pieces have the power to brighten up our lives and make our ordinary activities a bit more joyful. This is the reason she always tries to incorporate her Brazilian background and experience living in Asia through colours, using the clay as her canvas.
Paula is a Brazilian ceramicist based in London, graduated in Architecture and in love with design and colours.
Her journey with clay began in her childhood, painting little pots and bringing them home – loads of them. She has always been on the artsy side, drawing since she can remember and making and selling handmade jewellery at the age of 12.
After working in London as an Architect and starting pottery as a hobby, in 2018, Paula and her husband decided to move to Singapore. Once in Singapore she wasn’t able to practice as an Architect and had the opportunity to focus only in ceramics while juggling her 2 babies.
During the almost 5 years living in Asia, Paula took every opportunity to work with pottery in all the countries she was travelling to and to find inspiration from other artists.
Because she truly believes in the power of personal and handmade art she founded ‘From Paula, with Love’ in Singapore and began to sell her pieces.
In 2023, she moved back to London with the family and also transferred her company to the UK.
As a mum she was accumulating piles and piles of drawings from her children and loads of them were going to the bin. So she had the idea of transferring children’s drawings to ceramics and founded the brand ‘Illustrated by Little Hands’.
Meanwhile, many people seemed interested in not only buying her pottery pieces but also learning how to work with ceramics. She then launched the third front of her business “The Pottery Club”, offering one-off workshops in restaurant and pubs for adults.
She also noticed that there was strong demand from parents to offer the same experience to their children, which was when she created “The Pottery Club Kids”, offering the same concept of workshops but adjusted for kids.
Paula is fascinated with the idea that one can produce functional pieces for day-to-day life using one’s own hands. She believes these pieces have the power to brighten up our lives and make our ordinary activities a bit more joyful. This is the reason she always tries to incorporate her Brazilian background and experience living in Asia through colours, using the clay as her canvas.
My name is Paula, I am 36 years old, Brazilian, married with 2 children and currently living in London. Nice to meet you!
I’ll tell you a little bit of my background and how it led me to pottery.
I grew up in the western side of Brazil, not Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo. It is a beautiful area, full of nature, close to the Amazon jungle. Although I lived in a big city, I spent a lot of my childhood going to the farm, joining school field trips to indigenous tribes, visiting waterfalls and travelling to the coast to go the amazing beaches in the northeast of the country. Back then, as a child, I had my first connection with ceramics, mostly painting bisque fired pieces for fun.
I moved to São Paulo when I was 16 years old and graduated in Architecture and Urbanism at Universidade Belas Artes de São Paulo. I loved Architecture and Design, and still do!
Just after I graduated I came to London to spend 3 months (only!) studying English, but then love got in the way and I met my husband a few weeks after I arrived. At that time I was working in Architecture and Interior Design in the UK but I felt I wanted to “build” objects with my own hands, beyond designing on paper.
Then in 2017 I started a beginners pottery course at The Masbro Centre in west London.
In 2018 my husband and I moved to Singapore, and I started a wheel throwing course at The Potters’ Guilt. It was there that I got to know pottery more profoundly.
We travelled a lot around Asia and I did some workshops in Taiwan as well as visiting ceramic centres/locations in South Korea, Bali, Hong Kong…
In 2019 I had my first child and took a break from pottery. Three months after my first one was born, I got pregnant again (the second and last child!), so the break was even longer but I managed to keep on doing some hand building here and there at home, juggling with nappies, breastfeeding, naps, doctors’ appointments and so on.
After the second child was born then I went back to the studio. I was always rushing and trying to make the most of every minute I was in the studio. This made me salvage every piece I had made, even the ugliest and technically incorrect ones, trying to make them look nice to my eyes. Sometimes I managed it and sometimes I didn’t, but I rarely threw away a piece of work, always trying to make use of it.
As I improved in ceramics, never perfect, but always trying my best, I started very shyly selling some work under the logo “From Paula, with Love” and realised I could do it professionally combining it with other life commitments. So I registered my company and made my “public debut” at the Singapore Clay Festival at the end of 2022 just before moving back to London.
Once in London I began to adjust our family of 4 – including the 2 toddlers – to the new, cold and totally different life from Singapore. As things fell into place and life became a bit less chaotic I set-up my home studio and since then I’ve been challenging myself to meet a new, stunning and enormous ceramics market here in the UK, which is very exciting.
The colours and shapes of my pottery pieces are influenced by this background, always with a touch of Brazil!
From Paula, with Love.
In 2018 my husband and I moved to Singapore, and I started a wheel throwing course at The Potters’ Guilt. It was there that I got to know pottery more profoundly.
We travelled a lot around Asia and I did some workshops in Taiwan as well as visiting ceramic centres/locations in South Korea, Bali, Hong Kong…
In 2019 I had my first child and took a break from pottery. Three months after my first one was born, I got pregnant again (the second and last child!), so the break was even longer but I managed to keep on doing some hand building here and there at home, juggling with nappies, breastfeeding, naps, doctors’ appointments and so on.
After the second child was born then I went back to the studio. I was always rushing and trying to make the most of every minute I was in the studio. This made me salvage every piece I had made, even the ugliest and technically incorrect ones, trying to make them look nice to my eyes. Sometimes I managed it and sometimes I didn’t, but I rarely threw away a piece of work, always trying to make use of it.
As I improved in ceramics, never perfect, but always trying my best, I started very shyly selling some work under the logo “From Paula, with Love” and realised I could do it professionally combining it with other life commitments. So I registered my company and made my “public debut” at the Singapore Clay Festival at the end of 2022 just before moving back to London.
Once in London I began to adjust our family of 4 – including the 2 toddlers – to the new, cold and totally different life from Singapore. As things fell into place and life became a bit less chaotic I set-up my home studio and since then I’ve been challenging myself to meet a new, stunning and enormous ceramics market here in the UK, which is very exciting.
The colours and shapes of my pottery pieces are influenced by this background, always with a touch of Brazil!
From Paula, with Love.
