Walter Usai | Vetrine dell'Artigiano Artistico

Walter Usai

Stangiada

Sa Stangiada, a typical element of the renowned traditional ceramic production of Assemini, is reinterpreted with contemporary taste in this original version with bold glazed colours, also produced in the unglazed variant faithful to tradition.

Walter Usai|Assemini
Coffee set

This coffee set and sugar bowl with essential lines is lathe shaped in glossy white glazed ceramic combined in delicate contrast with the matte brown of glazed clay.

Walter Usai|Assemini
Gallinella - Moorhen

These hand-crafted and decorated pots are made of many-coloured glazed ceramic. The pot is called gallinella, being a formal synthesis of the stylized fowl, shaped to make pouring easier.

Walter Usai|Assemini
Plate

The playful use of colours, in its many captivating chromatic variations, characterises these terracotta dishes that revisit the typical pottery of local tradition with simple shapes.

Walter Usai|Assemini
Scivedda

Scivedda, a terracotta container, is the main piece of traditional Assemini production. Used across the island for the preparation of bread, pasta and traditional pastry, it is available with glazed, single-coloured and solid internal surface, in different bright colours.

Walter Usai|Assemini

The artisan

Walter is the son and the grandson of two well-known Assemini figuli potters, Elvio and Efisio, respectively. The family tradition is preserved in his Assemini workshop, located in the town center, specialized in the manufacture of lathe-moulded terracotta pottery. He knows the secrets of crafting and he is part of local tradition. His style is characterized by a confident expertise, typical of someone who knows tradition and dares to change. Interesting aesthetic results, clean and balanced, offering traditional artefacts, expressing love for tradition and contemporary research. Well known within the most exclusive exhibition and sale circles of handmade pottery, he offers a production that tells a story of passionate dedication to the family. The studio is still frequented by his father, who works on a lathe, with an anthropological and ethnographic value.

The collection

Walter Usai's production is characterized by the desire to give continuity to the contemporary and traditional ceramics of Assemini. He offers a varied collection of decorative items and tableware. Containers, plates, vases, jugs and pouring vessels are imbued with sophisticated patterns of traditional objects on which the craftsman adds glazes and tin-glazes, both monochrome and with graphic colours, which provide the artifacts with a contemporary touch.

The technique

In his workshop, artifacts are shaped on a lathe and ten decorated with a graffito technique, adding hand-made elements. Ceramic surfaces are coated with slips, glazes and bright tin-glazes, undergoing several firings, in gas or electric kilns. Enamels are made of non-toxic materials since they are intended as food containers.