Luisa “Ever let the Fancy roam…” Inventing stories, realizing impossible fantasies through the art of manipulating the soil and being amazed with fun at how ideas take shape in your hands. The elusive and wonderful mother nature feeds the ideas that come and go, so … “Open wide the mind’s cage-door” (cit. Fancy by John Keats) My name is Luisa, I am Genoese and many years ago I left the sea to land in the rolling hills of Valpolicella, in the province of Verona, where I live with my husband Alessandro, our son Stefano, Maggie a chocolate-colored Labrador and Scott the red cat. I love walking in nature, walking through meadows and woods I relax my thoughts and collect new ideas and herbs, leaves and flowers to be imprinted in the clay. Having lived a few years in Caltagirone in Sicily, called the city of ceramics, has rekindled my passion, never dormant, for art and creativity, starting with the wonderful and varied world of clay. I attended some basic courses and then finally I arrived at the workshop of the master Nico Toniolo of Marostica, where I learned the ancient Japanese technique “raku”, whose literal translation “to live nature with joy and harmony” seems written for me. Today I mainly use this technique for the creation of jewelry, also thanks to the teachings of the artist Francesca Trubbianelli. The other part of me has always been attracted to the matt surfaces, with which to create sculptures and artifacts, but for a self-taught person like me the journey has not been easy. The study of the use of engobes opened a new vision or perhaps made me understand what I was looking for, I have come a long way alone and then an internship with the French artist Anne-Sophie Gilloen allowed me to do another, a very important step towards the “surface” that I want for my works, however, aware that this is only a temporary goal because ceramics, like all arts, is a continuous study, research, experimentation. Hands in the earth are essential for me, like the green that surrounds me and the chirping of birds, I live far from the city … it’s not made for me.