Elisabetta Lombardo

Berlin · Germany

Elisabetta Lombardo

“Before I start making a vase I usually look up the moon online. If there are photos of the moon, I use it as inspiration.”

Elisabetta Lombardo is making one vase for every one of Saturn's 274 moons, each hand-built without a wheel and fired twice until a lava glaze she formulates herself cracks the surface into something like a lunar plain. She left the tech industry for clay, which she picked up at a low point and found steadying, and the habit grew into a practice built entirely around research: minerals tested and mixed rather than bought ready-made. She co-founded a Berlin studio built around hand-building and has held residencies at Hands-On and GlogauAIR.

I have three questions for you, and something in return.

Three questions.

Selected pieces

Porcelain Initial Necklace

€45ledge price

Elisabetta Lombardo Ceramics · Berlin, Germany

She looks at the moon, then builds it

Elisabetta Lombardo hand-builds ceramic vases and bowls in Berlin, each coiled and pinched without a wheel, then fired twice until a self-formulated lava glaze cracks into a lunar surface. Her ongoing project makes one vase for every one of Saturn's 274 moons.

Elisabetta Lombardo spent her working life in tech before clay took over. She picked it up at a low point and found that shaping it by hand steadied her, and the hobby kept growing until it became the work.

By hand, then by fire

She builds without a wheel. Each vase is coiled and pinched over several days, so no two leave the studio the same shape. Then the kiln takes over. A first firing at 960 degrees hardens the clay; a second, up to 1240 degrees, melts a lava glaze she formulates herself until minerals and clay fuse and the surface breaks into craters. She calls the material research an obsession, a passion for finding out how to turn minerals into glass.

A vase for every moon

In March 2025 astronomers confirmed 128 more moons around Saturn, bringing its total to 274, more than any planet in the solar system. Lombardo set herself a task to match: one vase for each moon. She looks up a moon before she makes its vase, studies whatever photographs exist, marks the finished piece with the moon's official IAU number, and photographs it on film. Telesto, Tethys, Rhea, the names are real satellites, though the vases are not meant to copy them.