Lauriane Payer meets Taittinger

“I could start out with a drawing, but I really feel that it’s only when you get your hands into the clay that you start having ideas. Once you start producing, something whirs into life,” the ceramicist explains. Having initially explored painting as a medium, she went on to train in Paris with sculptor Grégoire Scalabre, almost three years ago.


Specialising in pottery, she enjoys the sheer possibilities of ceramics; “the intertwining of art and craft, making collections of items that are utilitarian, but also artworks to be admired.” Fine dining restaurant La Grande Georgette, opposite the Reims cathedral, ordered its first series of pieces in 2022 while Payer was setting up her creative studio (Atome). Her workshop has since become a place of cross-pollination and osmosis, in which she gives both beginner classes and the option to come and work on a piece from time to time.

Shaping the clay by hand makes each piece unique; it is a process that is time-consuming, deeply artisanal and dear to our ceramicist. This has not prevented her from engaging in multiple collaborations. “Rather than simply suggesting my own pieces, what I like to do is create collections together with the person who ordered them,” she explains.

This was how Résonance came about: the collection took shape through discussions with Vitalie Taittinger and the director of the Taittinger Experience, Audrey Malacain, and was unveiled this July in “Chromatique,” the Maison’s new concept store. Initially the artist thought about making coupes, in a nod to how champagne is best enjoyed, but ceramics do not make for an optimal tasting experience.

Le lien avec le champagne devient alors plus subtil. En convoquant les couleurs de sa matière première et de son environnement, le vert de la vigne et le blanc de la craie, Lauriane Payer signe une collection de pièces uniques en grés émaillé, minérale et poétique. Elle entre en résonance avec la matière employée pour créer l’objet, la terre, et n’est pas sans rappeler l’atmosphère des carrières souterraines de craie au sein desquelles mature le champagne. 

Une fois les pièces tournées, assemblées et séchées, la céramiste opère une première cuisson, suivie de l’application d’un émail à l’origine de cet aspect vitrifié et ce doux dégradé de vert. En deuxième cuisson, à 1250°C, l’émail fusionne avec la terre.

“No matter how well I know my clay or my glazes, I’m never fully in control of what comes out of the oven. There are always surprises, depending on which pieces are beside one another or how full the kiln is; that’s what’s interesting and what makes these pieces so unique, even if they’re part of the same series.”

@atome_ceramique
www.atomeceramique.com

Text : Charlotte Jean