STORE EXCLUSIVES - Meet the Maker: Anas & Cinta

Hey Anas and Cinta! How are you both today?

C: I'm feeling electric and excited! Many cool things are coming up! It’s been a tough year for many of us but we are ready to have fun.

A: I'm also feeling great, we had a nice productive week. These days I’m very busy searching for a new place to set up my own ceramic workshop. I’m excited to have somewhere of my own to work with Cinta anytime.

We hear you are planning on opening a shop! Where will that be?

Yes! We've been brewing this for a long time and it’s finally happening. Since we met, we have not stopped creating things both together and on our own, opening our store feels like a natural outcome. For now, the shop will be online, and we are working on having everything ready to launch the 1st of May of 2021. There are so many things that have to be taken into account and we are going a bit crazy. We both have a day job and right now this is a project that we dedicate all our love to when we leave work and on weekends. We will also plan to have a mini showroom in Anas’ workshop, for people who want to come and buy our pieces.

Anas, you’re a Ceramic Artist and Cinta, you’re a Graphic Designer. What is the typical design process you both go through to get your finalised product?

Usually, it’s very spontaneous and in response to what we want to do or experiment with at that moment in time. When one of us wants to create something, the other will add to it and complement it in their own way. For example, a few weeks ago Cinta broke her chunky mug. Anas was experimenting with porcelain and made a new mug in his wheel. That mug was too plain for Cinta, so she drew some angry clouds that she had in her sketchbook. We used a ceramic pencil that we really wanted to try. And voilà! When sharing the final result on Instagram people responded enthusiastically so we’re planning to make a new collection based on this design.

What’s the best thing about working together?

C: It’s hard to choose one! I love how much we laugh constantly; Anas has a very special sense of humour and I am an easy laugh so it's non-stop.

A: What I like the most is the way we complement each other. What one doesn’t know the other probably does, so that takes us a step further in our ideas and we end up with results that we couldn’t have achieved on our own. We are a good team.

Who would be the dream collaboration?

We were thinking of famous and fancy designers but nah, our dream collaboration would be to work with someone who is as motivated and passionate as we are. Someone who wants to experiment and who can contribute new ways of working, materials and techniques that we haven’t tried. So, if there’s someone in the room who wants to play with us, do send us a message!

Who is the messiest in the studio?

Anas, without a doubt. We have very different ways of working but that enriches us. Anas prefers to find the problem while he is making, and that is why it seems that his way of doing things is messy. In the end that is actually his virtue, since in this approach there are more possibilities of finding surprises along the way. Sometimes there is gold among the mistakes. On the other hand, Cinta, being the good graphic designer, is very detail oriented and loves to be efficient in her creative process. Usually, she has many to-do lists and excel pages with what needs to be done. She is one of those people who likes to prevent problems and think of everything before making. By working together these two ways of making merge and make the perfect mix. This our secret recipe shhhh

Do you have a favourite piece you’ve created?

Our favourite piece is the porcelain furin in the shape of a puppy's head in a beret. We call him Perro-Boina. If you didn’t know, a Furin is a Japanese wind bell. “Fu” is wind and “rin” is bell in Japanese. Its sound is so summery, refreshing, and calm... We started this little product last summer, but we had to stop because at that time we were moving to our new home studio. And you know how crazy moving homes can get... Now that everything is settled we can work on this project again.

Do you plan on leaving your day jobs so you can work on building your brand?

Yes, maybe one day. We feel that we need to try it out and see how everything goes before taking this leap. We need a bit of experience combining the day job with the shop. At the moment, our project does not aim to make us rich, it is simply our creative outlet. In fact, we LOVE our day jobs. Cinta is living her best life as a designer at Vasava Studio, working with super talented colleagues and getting inspired all day long. And Anas is freelancing as a ceramist and product designer working on his clients’ orders, as well as teaching how to throw at a ceramic school, so we are not bored at all. At some point it would be nice to work entirely for ourselves and be our own bosses, though.

Who do you admire and get inspiration from the most?

There are many people who inspire us, especially people around us, friends and colleagues. In Barcelona the creative community is very tightly knit and it’s very easy to meet people you admire. Friends who do wonderful things: @maruhrz, danoh.co and heyshop.

There are also other power couples who we really admire for how they work and approach their projects. There is something special about working with your partner, being so connected on a sentimental level and knowing each other so well you almost have the power to read minds and that is reflected in the projects.

And at the ceramic level, we really like the austerity and simplicity of forms in Asian ceramics. We also greatly value illustrated pieces, right now it seems there is a boom of very talented people who are creating wonderful ceramic objects. Potters we like: @jaejunlee_ceramics, @floriangadsby, @fenekstudio and @fungtaitau.