21. Cécile Dumetier
“I find [self-promotion] to be the most challenging thing. I think it’s because as women we are educated to be quiet and not take up space!”
Summer has finally, gloriously arrived on the day that I meet Cécile Dumetier outside Crown Works Pottery in East London. We sit on a picnic bench under a tree in dappled sunlight and commence the chat that has taken the best part of a year to get into our diaries.
Cécile is a ceramicist and graphic designer who lives in Haggerston, East London, who came on board with The Worshipful last autumn. She grew up in Lyon, France with architect parents who ran their own practice - her father loves to remind her that, as a child, she would run around their studio in her nappy, drawing. She recalls being taken to exhibitions and other events, and all her toys were creative or craft-based, so she was very much immersed in creativity for the entirety of her childhood. She credits this with influencing her love of design and beauty, but she knew she didn’t want to follow in her parents’ footsteps and go into architecture, because of how much of their time it consumed. Graphic design felt like a natural side-step for her, so she went to study her degree in Paris and studied her MA at Intuit Lab School, before moving to London aged 24, which she chose for the culture, the design and the opportunity to properly learn English.
Under her design practice, Studio Omelette, Cécile has worked with the whisky brand Balvenie and cultural venues such as the Southbank Centre. But after ten years working in graphic design, both full-time and freelance, and so many hours spent sitting in front of computer screens, Cécile realised she had reached something akin to burnout: “so I took a few classes at Crown Works Pottery and it was just such a big shift. It was so nice to be present, you know, make something with your hands and be disconnected from the screen. You're messy, you're full of clay, your phone is far away. I found it therapeutic and realised I really wanted to incorporate it into my life, so after [the classes], I started to do my design work for clients in the week, come here [to Crown Works] as a technician and after that I became a member. I still don't have the perfect balance, but …it really helped me”.
If anything Cécile thinks her segue into ceramics helped her to fall back in love with graphic design, because now she has an alternative space to step into: “it’s a nice balance to have. To just make for myself, explore for myself. I don't have a client brief or an insane deadline…. I'm so happy that I can be a potter and a designer, and I think they feed into each other. Sometimes with pottery, I try to not do the opposite of design exactly, but I think design is more controlled, neat, and typographic. Whereas with my ceramic work, I try to embrace imperfection. But it took me a while to be happy with the type of work I do. I had to explore, I did quite a lot of experimenting, just grabbing a ball of clay and seeing where it took me, keeping it quite basic before adding a personal touch”.
Cécile explains that it's only quite recently that she started to make things that she was actually proud of “and I thought, OK, that fits with what I want to do. I established that I want to make utilitarian things, like tableware. I wanted to make useful things, that are functional - cups, bowls and plates. Often, when I create a new piece it’s because I have a friend who said, ‘oh, I want some mugs or a ramen bowl’, or something like that, which is quite fun because if it's something I haven't thought of myself, it's also a challenge”. Her process is simple: she sketches out a rough design and then experiments, allowing things like the weight of the ball of clay to dictate the size and capacity of the finished piece.
I tell Cécile that I particularly like the small semi-circular unglazed mark at the base of her jugs, mugs and other vessels: “that’s the glaze! I will dip [the piece] with my fingers, so it’s the outline of my fingertip. Those are the kind of imperfections I like, because the piece can be completely neat, you could dip the whole thing and clean the base, but I like the fact you make a mark, you leave some of your body’s marks which stay even after being fired”. It’s a distinctive signature and once that helps define her work under the moniker Atelier Cé.
She tells me she takes a lot of inspiration from nature, too. From the bark of a tree to the underside of a mushroom, she loves to try and imitate these patterns in her work. The abundance of nature is what she especially loves about living in her pocket of London – “I feel that very keenly about London, you can easily go to a park and break away from the structure and the concrete. I'm so happy here. After London it's hard to know what's next. It’s cosmopolitan and people think it's a busy city, but at the same time, I can walk to my studio in peace. It doesn’t feel crowded. And it’s far greener than any of the other cities I have lived in. Especially at the moment! Everything is so lush”. Cécile has a dog, which makes her a regular user of her local green spaces, Rosemary Gardens and Shoreditch Park.
Her routine on ceramics days is the one she enjoys the most. She walks from Haggerston, so picks up a matcha latte from her local coffee shop before a leisurely 30-minute stroll along the canal. “I procrastinate a bit when I get here, because I see the other potters in the studio who are all lovely, so we chat. It's a slow start. Then I open my sketchbook where I have all the weights for each of my pieces. If I want to make cups, then for the big ones I need 400 grams. I’ll wedge my clay, make maybe 20 balls. I prep everything I need. I’ll then sit at my wheel and just get on with it. Sometimes I’m here for the entire day, sometimes I do half a day and then go back home to do a bit of graphic design”.
I asked Cécile what she thinks are the most significant challenges she has faced as a self-employed creative. Interestingly to me, because she comes across as a quietly confident person, she says she suffers from imposter syndrome: “I am my worst enemy. I stop myself from doing things, like self-promotion. My friends are always encouraging me to post more on social media and it does take a lot of time. But I find there is a weird balance where you must make and be creative and this part is fine. But then you have all the admin, networking and self-promotion and I find that to be the most challenging thing. I think it’s because as women we are educated to be quiet and not take up space! But even more because I am self-taught but surrounded by such talented potters, for whom it’s their full-time job”.
She then goes on to say what a great community it is, working in ceramics: “unlike in design, it doesn't feel competitive, people help each other. You can ask questions, get help. It builds confidence if you feel supported by your colleagues or the people that you're working alongside. It really lifts you up”.
Among these potters at Crown Works Pottery are some women whom Cécile says she finds especially inspiring:
Lucia Ocejo is a Mexican potter and artist. She is Studio Manager at Crown works and was one of Cécile’s first teachers. She’s stocked in Toast and you’ll find her pieces adorning the tables in Mexican restaurant Cavita, Popham’s and Popolo in Shoreditch.
Skye Corewijn runs a ceramics shop on Hackney Road called Klei. She sells work by a selection of local ceramicists as well as hosting events and exhibitions, which Cécile says makes the space feel like a nurturing community. She also supplies establishments such as the restaurant Ombra in Bethnal Green, The Henrietta Hotel and Forno near London Fields with her own work.
When doing these Worshipful Ones interviews, I always close by asking what exciting fantasy projects my interviewees might have, and Cécile already has hers underway!
“I always wanted to combine graphic design with my ceramic work. Not just with my skills, but also by combining the two communities, the people I have met through both worlds of work. So I'm putting together an exhibition which will take place during London Design Festival in September.
We are working with Silo in Hackney Wick, which is a no-waste restaurant, and we're using their used wine bottles. They have a machine to crush the bottles into glass sand and we're using this to make a glaze. Lucia [Ocejo, see above] is working on the glaze because she understands the chemistry, so she's experimenting with that. I contacted 22 London-based potters and asked them to make pieces using the same glaze. And we will exhibit for three days on 15th, 16th and 17th of September.
I'm working on the branding, and I will make a piece, although I’m not sure what it will be yet. But I will do all the exhibition design as well. On one of the evenings we will invite people to talk about how to make useful and beautiful things using waste materials. So far, we hope to have Haeckels and Notpla taking part”.
After this, Cécile rushes off to continue getting everything organised for what sounds like a brilliant, environmentally important and exciting event. If you’re interested in coming along, keep an eye on the Atelier Cé and Worshipful Instagram feeds over the coming weeks, for more information.
For Atelier Cé ceramics, shop here. Find Studio Omelette here.
