Who i am

Inês Valenti

Ceramic Artist | Handbuilt Sculpture

I’m Inês Valenti – ceramic artist, sculptor, and the hands behind each form you see here. My practice is quiet, slow, and rooted in something deeply personal: a return to myself.

Motherhood was the shift that brought me back to my centre. In caring for another life, I was brought closer to my own. It awakened a need — not for reinvention, but for reconnection. To uncover what had always lived within me, waiting. Clay became the way in.

Clay was never just a material to me — it was a way in.

A way into stillness, into patience, into beauty built slowly, layer by layer. I was drawn to its grounding quality, its raw honesty, and the way it responds to your hands, your breath, your attention. Ceramics taught me to slow down, and in that stillness, I found my voice.

My process is meditative — shaping, carving, waiting, glazing. A rhythm I trust, a ritual I return to. I create pieces that are organic, simple, and tactile — meant to be lived with, noticed, and felt. I am drawn to imperfection, to the quiet irregularities that hold life. Every mark, every texture is intentional, but never forced.

The etched surfaces in my work are central. They’re not decoration — they are memory. Traces of something internal, surfacing. These carvings hold the feeling of a quiet excavation, a form of listening. My current body of work, Primordia, is about that return — to origin, to essence, to the self before noise.

Alongside making, I now share this process with children. I teach with the same principles that guide my own practice: presence, patience, intuition. Watching young hands discover clay — and themselves through it — has become one of the most meaningful parts of this journey. It’s not just about technique. It’s about connection.

I’m always creating, always returning. Listening for what’s next, but never in a rush. Clay, for me, is stillness in motion.

And through it, I am always finding my way back.