Mindful Clay Creations With Modeletto’s At Home Pottery Kits
BY MAHI KUMAR
The Chatty gals tried Modeletto’s air-dry pottery kits and created our own pottery masterpieces at home, and I can see the appeal.
19 FEB - 2024
We chat to founder Krissy and unpack the incredible story behind Modeletto.
I don’t know what’s in the air right now but it feels like just about everyone is into pottery. You may have heard of Modeletto, but if you haven’t, they’re a great mother and daughter owned business where you can buy ceramic goodies and at home air-dry pottery kits made by them.
Made with the intention of being “art-therapy” and a more mindful way to spend time, I can hand-on-heart say that I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at home with Modeletto. Sophie and I unpacked the “why” behind Modeletto with founder Krissy Derrick, before embarking on a double date experience on a gloomy Sunday.
What got you into pottery and what inspired you to create Modeletto?
“I hadn’t actually tried pottery before the year I started the business. We founded Modeletto in the long lockdown of 2021 at a time when everyone was stuck at home looking for things to do instead of scrolling and looking at lockdown memes. We wanted to add more play and an art-therapy form into people’s lives as we know how much our mental health suffered during those months. When you have messy hands, you disconnect from your devices and spend time in flow state (which is when you're completely immersed in something, and your mind becomes quiet. Whilst working full time jobs, we would hustle away every night and weekend, sometimes until 2/3am. We wanted our community to have everything they needed to make at home without any extra costs or trips to a kiln - that’s why our kits are the perfect thing for a beginner - kiln free and fuss free.”
We know the name "Modeletto" was driven by "to model" in Italian, which was a nod to your Italian heritage attributable to your grandfather/dad. We love how much of a family affair Modeletto appears to be, with yourself and your mum driving the whole process. Can you give us a bit more insight into what exactly you and your mother each do?
“My mother Amanda and I both work on a lot of things together but you’ll see my face the most on social media as I live in Auckland and run our marketing and digital. Mum lives in Christchurch and is our kit queen maker and CFO (someone’s gotta reign my business expenses in). Mum hand-makes all of the pottery kits from scratch using locally sourced products. She spends hours, cutting and bagging clay from big 20kg bags into the little pouches then heat seals them so that the clay stays nice and fresh for up to a year. She then applies plastic-free decals which are made by her son/my brother. Mum even pours all the paints, sealers and glazes into little jars and places stickers on every little pottle - yes a lot of love goes into this process, but it was so important to us to not have these kits made in China to make our offering as eco-friendly as we can. Mum sends out all the kits for our customers, events and wholesalers.
At the start of the business, I was solely marketing the kits and focusing on hosting events and collaborations but then I fell in love with clay throughout the journey and started making creations all hours of the night and day to learn as much as I could. In 2022, I had an accident where I fell off a deck and broke my neck. It was one of the most challenging and darkest moments of my life as I’m a very active and hard-working person - let’s just say being stuck in bed with a neck brace on wasn’t my idea of fun. As I became more mobile it was sculpting with clay that kept me going. As I started healing at the end 2022, I started throwing on the wheel and became obsessed. I then started selling my pieces on the online store as well as in retail stores around New Zealand. After doing wholesale for many months and making way too many cups, I’m now focusing on only doing commissions and making for the online store as mass production pottery was taking the love out of making for me.”
We can see that all materials in the kits are natural and non-toxic, give us some more detail behind this.
“It was super important to provide products that were not only as eco-friendly as they can be, but also be non-toxic (and made right here in NZ) and child friendly as our brand is a very family orientated business.
Modeletto is a sustainable business in more ways than one. Our packaging is home compostable, recyclable and reusable. The stickers are made with PVC free products. The clay is wrapped in a compostable cling-wrap + compostable kraft pouch. The paints come in reusable glass jars. The paint brush handles and sculpting tools are wooden. The mailer boxes are craft cardboard and can be reused. Each box is packed with reused wool insulation and last but not least we have compostable mailer bags.”
What is your favourite thing to make?
“Handbuilding is so much slower and more therapeutic than a fast wheel, I love to make vases using the coil method or any sort of bowl whether that’s using the pinch pot or slab / press mould technique.”
So what was the Chatty team’s experience?
Mahi: In all honesty, I had so much fun spending the day with people I love hand building creations. One thing that I found really cool was how focused and into it each person got. One thing I found frustrating was how naturally talented my partner was at this. He made perhaps what I consider to be one of the most symmetrical hand-built mugs I’ve ever seen in my life!
We all created such different items, and it was so cool to see. I decided to hand-build two items that were air-dry and didn’t need to be food safe. One was a little yellow bowl for my rings, and the other a pink plate for my jewellery (which was inspired by Modeletto’s instagram!). Everytime I glance over at my bedside and see my little jewellery plate I do feel a twang of happiness and proudness that I created something (albeit as small as it is) and it’s actually being put to use.
My partner made a mug (as mentioned above, it was very symmetrical), and a heart shaped plate. His intention behind this was for it to be a mug I would use for my daily 3pm tea break, and the plate to be for my cookies or biscuits I eat while consuming my tea (he’s a gem, I know). Sophie and Sam, between them, created a vase, a large fruit bowl, and a small pot. As these items need to be food safe, they’re waiting to be fired at the kiln.
I think one of the coolest things about this experience is that the moment you receive a Modeletto package, it just feels like it’s been packed with love. The paints and glazes provided are high quality, and it feels like there’s a tutor stepping you through the whole process with how instructive and informative the guides in the kits are.
You can sit with people you love (or by yourself!) and spend time in such a mindful and creative way, which is such a genuine way to replenish your cup in my opinion. I work two very demanding high stress jobs that means my life is go go go, so to spend a Sunday moving slowly with intention felt so soothing to my soul. I didn’t realise I would quite enjoy this as much as I did, but I couldn't recommend it more.
There’s also something particularly satisfying in creating something from start to finish and having a tangible result right there in front of you. My pink jewellery plate and yellow ring bowl stands proud on my table, and definitely brings a pop of colour to my room, if I do say so myself.
I could not recommend purchasing a Modeletto air-dry pottery set more, for all the reasons that both myself and Krissy have outlined above. Krissy has also mentioned that they are currently running a promo where you get 1 free kit with a purchase of 3! Perfect for all occasions, I think this has all your gifting needs wrapped into one, and can be such a good way to force yourself to take some much needed time for yourself and to be present.
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