The future, whether we like it or not, will involve recycling. Tons of plastic and glass thrown into nature and a tiny part recycled according to the rules of the art. Our small daily actions work towards this. An artist like the ceramist Géraldine Simon integrates this state of mind into her works in an innovative alchemy.
When a person shines in front of you, you sense that they are on the right track. This is the case of Géraldine Simon who, for six years now, has successfully retrained in the delicate art of artistic ceramics. Paradox of this fragile discipline, because it is often shaped by slender hands and then heated in massive ovens. A reconversion that owes nothing to chance. Born in Limoges – this cannot be made up – Géraldine was taken during her youth from port to port with a father-in-law who was a brigade commander. From his adolescence in Djibouti, he remains curious and open to the world. Pleonasm for an artist.
Mesmerized by the potter’s wheel
A memory that has not faded over time. Water, salt, sand, corals, she found them in the Pyrénées-Orientales. Despite her twenty-six year career in the One Direct company as sales director, she took the plunge thanks to the advice of Rémi Sisqueille, winemaker at Château de Rey located in Canet, who advised her to learn ceramics with Gaëlle Gouillard, ceramist in Calce, seeing his interest in the thing. Every week, the potter’s wheel and the cooking stages hypnotized her, until the day they found themselves at her house.
A metamorphosis to infinity
The real particularity of the lady is the materials she introduces into the enamel. Glass, more precisely the glass debris that she patiently searches for on the department’s beaches. A material polished by the elements, it metamorphoses endlessly and is reintroduced in another form in the sand. In Géraldine’s creative process, after modeling the piece on the potter’s wheel, drying in her workshop under the roof and first firing at 950°C to evaporate the water, solidification appears. Second act: applying the enamel to the piece and introducing the recycled glass. And the alchemy becomes real. After the second firing at 1,250°C, a salty halo encircles the pattern of the glass now taken as a whole. Géraldine explains to us that the glass found on the beaches in Spain is tinted blue and in France rather green or brown – guess for which brands of beer.
Classy recycling
It is true that Iberian containers are often made of blue plastic, hence the overseas explosion occurring after cooking on the works. In this original research, Géraldine wants to go even further by manufacturing natural enamels. You can appreciate her production in the boutiques of Collioure, Perpignan, Céret, Sète, Port-Vendres or in restaurants which have called upon his talent for unique table services (L’Arsouille, Le Gogui, Lady Jaja…). A classy recycling.
