MARIA DE ALMEIDA E PAIVA

Nu Cerâmica

Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal

"Embrace slow living with handmade ceramics, weaving beauty into everyday rituals."

Unique handmade tableware ceramic pieces designed and crafted in Portugal by Maria de Almeida e Paiva. Working with clay is a slow and recursive process, and it is here that she finds a sense of space and calmness, a feeling that she hopes will pass on to the pieces she creates and to the values that Nu Cerâmica stands for.

more about Nu Cerâmica

Value in the details

Love and dedication

As a passionate ceramicist, Maria designs and crafts inspiring and unique tableware for your home, through an 100% handmade mould process and slip casting technique, with a delicate hand finishing. Pieces are all made in controlled quantities which allows her to assure quality and personality, combined with the love and dedication she feels for this brand.

You might wonder...

Can Nu Ceramica pieces be washed in a washing machine and go in a microwave?

Yes they can! However, everything that is handmade deserves a lot of love and affection and the use of the washing machine and the microwave can shorten the lifespan of the pieces. But they are all produced with materials that allow it.

Where does her inspiration comes from?

"It comes from everything actually. The people around me, the places I go, music, the skin touch, trips, landscapes,...
Essentially everything around me! I avoid just looking for inspiration in other ceramic pieces. It's much easier to create the temptation to do the same or similar. That's why it's very important for me to get more inspiration from sensations than from things."

Where did the idea of the handle of the pieces came from?

Her sister lived in Japan for a while and when she went to visit her she noticed the huge ritual around tea. Most Japanese teapots have a wooden tubular side handle. Once she arrived in Portugal she sketched and sketched, submersed in all the influences she saw regarding tea, teapots and Japanese nature and culture, and she came up with a draft design of what is now the Ameno teapot.