Chatting with ceramicist Borja Moronta

May, 2024

YG - Most people move from the cold north to the sunny south - you have moved from the buzz of Madrid to the austerity of Edinburgh. How important are your surroundings, close or wide, to your creative work?

Borja - Although I moved here from Madrid after living there for 8 years, I grew up by the Atlantic coast of Spain, in a small but beautiful region called Asturias. The landscape there is just as green as in Scotland, hills, cliffs everywhere and thick forests grow close to the seaside. Scotland feels like home - although a wee bit colder. I think the surroundings are definitely important, but mostly from a comforting point of view. I feel calm and welcome here, connected to the country and the people, and that feeling filters through my work. I think the work is a reflection of my state of mind, and this city and the surrounding landscape offers me that calm and quiet mindfulness.

Beautiful northern light floods the studio space

Your training as an architect, and your practice now as a ceramicist, seem very ‘opposite’. Was this an organic change, or a stop/start one? In reverse, if you were to create a building now, would you approach it differently?

I think in a way it was an organic change. I came across ceramics and Japanese tradition while researching at architecture school, hence my eyes had already been looking at pottery for a while. Then, after a surgery to repair nerve damage on my left hand and a long recovery process, I was recommended to do an activity that would help me gain strength. I joined some evening throwing classes and I got completely hooked. It was also a time where I felt burnout of architecture, so as the joy of architecture was fading away, the passion for ceramics was growing at light speed.

There are large similarities between the process of making with clay and that of creating or building architecture. While I was always drawn to architecture where the material was at the forefront of the building, I guess I would look at it now in a more organic way, understanding it all as a process rather than an image.

The image of the potter is often that of the ‘lone maker’ – do you like to collaborate?

Although I like to collaborate with others to an extent, I feel my work is very personal and so accepting input from others, I find it quite hard.  I do enjoy working with fine dining chefs and creating pieces for their restaurants, but I have to find a personal connection with them, to feel I am being trusted with my style, glazes and shapes. It is then that we can develop a more tailored collection of pieces for their plating, etc.

Making ceramics involves many skills and processes, practical and cerebral. Your glazes seem to me to be complex and minimal at the same time. Do you enjoy this aspect of your work, and the research and trial & error it must involve?

I do! Glazing is all about chemistry and alchemy. I enjoy formulating them and understanding the results, going back and forth fine tuning them so I can achieve the result I have in my mind. It is funny for me to think now how one of my chemistry teachers in high school kept saying how useless I was… but when it comes to my work, both glazes and clay are formulated and mixed by myself for them to work together and to achieve the final result. It’s a massive part of my language as a ceramicist and I enjoy it and look into it as much as the making of the pieces for instance.

Glaze development on bottle shapes

Many artists travel or take up residencies in search of new stimulus, headspace or simply a break from routine – is there someplace you would like to go and how do you think it would influence your work?

Personally I would love to spend some time in Japan and Korea, learning as much as possible about the making, the firing and their traditions, which I think are quite different from ours. Both places have inspired me either through my architecture or my ceramics career from afar, and it would be wonderful to spend some time there learning from long standing artists. Also someplace warm, I often find myself thinking about how my colours or shapes could be affected by living/working somewhere warm like Menorca for instance.

Menorca

If you were to be gifted any piece of artwork or an object – what would you ask for?

It would have to be an object by Paul Philp, who is based near Bath. I hope to visit his studio one day and have the chance to talk to him. His work is completely opposite to mine, handbuilt and full of texture and depth, pieces may take 5 or 6 firings to be ready and the outcome is likely unpredictable. But when looking at it I can feel the slow pace of work and complexity of it all.

What now, what next? – could you share some directions or images for 2024+ ?

 At the moment I am deep into making the pieces all clients have ordered through my latest pre-order collection of tableware. It’s a way to work efficiently and to focus on a much needed routine after going through busy months renovating my flat. Once that is out of the way I will be focusing on developing a series of compositional pieces for the Formed with Future Heritage exhibition in London, later this autumn.

Many thanks to Borja for sharing his thoughts.