I am Audrone Dackute more widely known as Pho Ceramics. I started creating back when I was still in middle school but I only started modelling out of clay during my last years of high school – I fell in love with clay’s plasticity and it’s properties, that was the reason why I chose to study it further. I applied to Vilnius Academy of Arts and four years later was awarded bachelor degree in ceramics.
What I create now did not come quick, it materialized wandering through my childhood’s memories of forests and fields of my home town. I grew up in a beautiful place surrounded by woods and huge open fields of grass and rye behind those woods. Ever since I was little I loved animals and I still do now, and it metabolizes into my work too.
My fear of growing up, attraction to nature and all living things pushed me to create this paradigm of animated ceramic world, stuck between functionality and art, a mug and a sculpture, fragility and beauty. With my work I aim to brighten some people’s livelihood, inspire through every day things.
Every Pho animal is formed by hand, a never stopping process leaves only the concept constant – a mug or a bowl with a function. One of the biggest point of attraction and a source of life is their eyes – I paint them with a small brush using underglaze paint.
The process is definitely not short, with the multiple 24-hour firings in the kiln, glazing, painting, gold or silver plating. Most often the final product takes up to a couple of weeks to finish, but what comes out of it makes all this so worth it.
I can honestly say I am completely dependent on the seasons of the year, and they are extreme in Lithuania. They are a great influence on colors I choose for my animals and forms they take. I am always on the lookout for new forms, colors and patterns for my bowls, even completely different personifications – creative process is totally unpredictable. And I never try to create something, it comes to me naturally. So now let's walk through my magic forest...