Our teachers
Hand building teacher
Irina Slimobich
Irina Slimobich ‘Irino’ – multidisciplinary artist from the Balearic Islands, living between Barcelona and Menorca. Her work focuses on ceramics, illustration and mural art. Thanks to a childhood surrounded by animals, nature and cartoons, she has a rich imaginary characterised by vibrant colours and textures.
Courses by Irina:
Visit her Instagram profile: @irinio.slimobich
Wheel throwing teacher
Julen Ussia
Besides being a great artist, he is a person who transmits a lot of calm, always with a sense of humour and a passion for teaching everything he knows. Let us tell you a little bit more about him:
Julen Ussia (1993, Amurrio) moved to Barcelona to train in Arts and Design 12 years ago, during which time he discovered ceramics. He discovered an intense field of work on the potter’s wheel and concluded his training with a Master’s degree in Ceramics.
With his personal work he develops a laboratory of volumes, materials and simple finishes. The elements support and support each other freely and without fixed joints, giving rise to multiple visions of the same object. In this way, he questions ideas such as the usability of forms and the way in which we relate to our immediate material environment.
Throughout this time he has shared his work in exhibitions and conferences at home and abroad; Japan, Milan, Brussels and New York. In recent years he has devoted himself intensively to the dissemination of the craft through teaching.
Courses by Julen:
Visit his Instagram profile: @julenussia
Wheel throwing teacher
Anás Rifi-Zinati
Anás Rifi-Zinati (@anoserzb) is able to find that perfect balance between technique and creativity, and most importantly, he knows how to transmit this to his students, who enjoy and learn at the same time.
“From my workshop @espai.alfar, I try to approach my work from a point of view where the contemporary and the functional are in dialogue.
Given my experience in other disciplines (such as cabinetmaking, interior design and industrial modelling) I fuse all this knowledge to design and produce objects where the richness lies in the manufacturing process.
I started working with ceramics instinctively, I could not pinpoint what drew me to this profession until my grandmother explained to me that when she was young she worked for her mother-in-law (my great-grandmother) who was a ceramist in the Rif working on one of the most important ceramic styles in North Africa made by talented craftswomen from the region. Having this legacy through my family makes me feel proud and fortunate.”
Visit his Instagram profile: @anoserzb
Hand building teacher
Lucía de los Santos
Lucía (@luciadelossantos) is our teacher of weekly modelling and weekend intensives, enamelling and initiation to the research of high temperature enamels.
“I was born in Seville on Tuesday the 13th. As a child I always liked to draw, so my mother encouraged me to study Fine Arts. In the process I discovered that what I was passionate about was design, so I came to Barcelona with a 9-month scholarship to finish my degree. Almost 18 years have passed and I’m still here. I graduated as an advertising graphics technician and started my career as a graphic designer, art director and creative director in an advertising agency.
My first contact with ceramics was simply a way to disconnect from the digital stress of my job and to connect with my inner child. Little by little it grew on me and I invested most of my free time in learning as much as I could and practising, practising, practising… with the aim of changing the agency for a ceramics workshop.
Nowadays I am part of the @eltornbarcelona_ family and I also teach private workshops. I work on my pieces and collections combining the techniques of potter’s wheel and modelling, with a mixture of minimalist, mediterranean and japandi styles.
Ceramics has been, and is, a great teacher; it teaches me to stop, to slow down, to be attentive to what I am doing, to allow myself to be imperfect, to enjoy the path and its processes, and to accept that the result is not always what I had imagined. Just like life itself, isn’t it? 🙃”
Lucía runs our RRSS @eltornbarcelona_
Visit her Instagram profile: @luciadelossantos
Hand building teacher
Muriel Dumahut
Muriel (1991, France), a woman full of creativity, motivation and above all smiles.
She became part of the ElTorn family in 2018, first as a coworker and then as a modelling teacher, assistant and teacher of the kiln masterclass. She has trained in different ceramics seminars in the UK and in Barcelona (a Sagittarius who has travelled the world a lot, of course 😉
How does Muriel experience ceramics?
“I have always loved movement; the way in which creativity and art emerge from the body, from the tactile. For me, ceramics is to be fully dedicated to the material, it is a letting go through the hands, it is to forget oneself in an infinite exploration of shapes and textures, sensations…. It is a deep meditation.
I am in constant balance between the symmetrical within the organic, between the geometric on top of the deformed, between the delicate in alliance with the crude. I investigate how to express this balance by creating imperfect lines.”
Classes by Muriel:
Visit her Instagram profile: @mud.ceramics
Sculpture teacher
Esperanza Grez
Esperanza Grez (1992, Chile)
“I came to Barcelona in 2020 to study a master’s degree in art and design research. During the first year, I didn’t have a workshop space and, as soon as I finished my studies, I took up ceramics again. I had a huge need to return to manual work. In Chile, I shared a studio with a colleague and at that time I was working in photolithography and ceramic sculpture.
When I was about to graduate from high school, I enrolled in a lathe and modelling course that allowed me to get to know what it meant to work in a workshop and marked me on a professional level. Since then, inhabiting that space has become fundamental, as it allows me to think, reflect and give meaning to the link between internal and external space.
Although I began by making utilitarian pieces, my training in fine arts and my obsession with understanding how to communicate and how to connect the interior space with the exterior naturally led me to research sculptural pieces. Working with ceramics allows us to see and experience this link. By bringing the body into contact with the clay, a process of transformation takes place that alters the form of the material and makes it perceptible how we affect each other.”
Courses by Esperanza:
Read more about Esperanza in this interview
Visit her Instagram profile: @artegrez
Wheel throwing teacher
Andrea Herrera
Andrea Herrera Heredero (Barcelona, 1995) combines her three passions, finding a balance between ceramic creation, teaching and photography.
“I am a very curious person and since I was a child I have been attracted to anything to do with art. I studied dance and specialised in pedagogy, studying internationally and working as a dancer and teacher around Catalonia. In my forties I started to grow an interest in the audiovisual arts and ended up studying photography and immediately started working as a content creator for a small company.
As a result of this change in my life, I came across ceramics by chance. From the first day I sat down at the wheel I was overcome with a voracious hunger to learn and this has meant that, juggling a lot, I have spent most of my days practising, researching and being very happy.
Due to my experience as a teacher, I soon had the opportunity to teach everything I was learning, reaffirming how much I enjoy teaching and above all, how much I enjoy sharing my love for ceramics.
Right now I feel very satisfied to be able to combine these three passions in my life: on the one hand I am developing my personal project, Herher Ceramics, in which I show my care for aesthetics through the photographs of the pieces I create for sale; and on the other hand I am part of the El Torn team as a potter’s wheel teacher.”
Courses by Andrea:
Visit her Instagram profile: @andreaherher
Wheel throwing teacher
Fip Tonkins
I grew up with parents who loved hiking, and this gave me a sense of being at home outdoors from an early age that has never left me. I find a lot of inspiration in nature, but the most magical places are the forests.
There are stories and treasures in every nook and cranny, and I am driven by my curiosity about the processes and relationships in the lives of plants. Beyond the shapes and patterns we find there, I am inspired by the feeling of being surrounded by life. The joy we feel when we connect with things that grow, and with the real, solid earth we live on, is something I seek in my connection with clay and the pieces I make.
I take a holistic approach to my pottery practice, using wheel, modelling, sculpture and mould techniques to make the pieces. Each technique feeds and supports the others. Just as in the life of a forest, it is all connected.
Courses by Fip:
Visit Instagram profile: @tonks_pots