Melbourne maker Dani Maugeri originally trained in Industrial Design at Swinburne, but after graduating, she soon realised she didn’t have much interest in becoming a traditional designer, or working 9.00 to 5.00. Instead, she began experimenting with silversmithing and ceramics, and in 2001 launched her own jewellery line, Dani M Designs.
Under this brand name, Dani makes fine jewellery using silver, gold and coloured porcelain in distinctive muted tones. It’s been hugely successful business for Dani – she’s been running her little label for 15 (!!) years now, and her meticulously handcrafted pieces can be found in various stockists nationally.
However, over time – as tends to happen with so many creative people – Dani has become a little restless. In the last year she decided to go ‘back to basics’ and try to loosen up a little, the result of which is a new side project – GoodlyGOLD Ceramics.
‘I established GoodlyGOLD as an outlet for the more unconventional ideas I have, with a more one-off / handmade feel’ says Dani.
Whilst her creative output in previous years has been generally characterised by fully resolved forms, meticulously planned, sketched, and even 3D printed, Dani M’s latest range of ceramics for GoodlyGOLD is purposefully loose.
‘I began with the simplest form of pottery I could think of, pinch potting, letting the clay and my hands guide the shapes (almost like meditation) and avoiding the urge to make them all perfect and identical… letting each one become it’s own little ‘person’. Dani explains. Naming her latest collect ‘The Deadbeat Club’, Dani sees these ceramic creations as endearingly imperfect beings – ‘They shouldn’t necessarily be loveable, yet they are’ she says.
GoodlyGOLD Ceramics are stocked at Modern Times, Melbournalia, Collector Store, Craft Victoria and in Dani’s online store.
