Mathieu Casseau is a french potter from Douarnenez (Brittany), known for finely thrown bowls finished with wood-fired, smoke-marked terra sigillata surfaces.
French potter working primarily with terra sigillata.
Studied applied arts in Nantes and later specialised in ceramics in Dieulefit before settling on the Breton coast.
Runs “Atelier Terre Sigillée” in Douarnenez, where he throws, refines and fires all works himself, mostly in wood kilns.
Uses highly refined, iron-bearing slips and low-temperature firing to achieve dense colours, micro-cracks and smoky transitions on otherwise immaculate forms.
Member of Ateliers d’Art de France and regularly invited to specialised terra sigillata exhibitions and potters’ markets across France and Europe.
"The common thread running through my work is the tension of the line. I like bodies that evoke a container, stability, without caps or accessories. I seek to ensure that movement comes from the crack, as opposed to the posed aspect of the form."
About Mathieu Casseau (Bretagne, France)
Mathieu works almost exclusively with terra sigillata, a technique rooted in Roman and Gallo-Roman pottery that was originally used to give everyday wares a dense, almost watertight, luminous surface. In his studio in Douarnenez he prepares refined, iron-rich clay slips, applies them to precisely thrown forms, then wood-fires and smoke-reduces them. This sequence brings out earthy reds, oranges and browns, and creates the fine network of black micro-cracks, veils and discolourations that define his work. For UNEARTHED the focus is on a series of bowls with deliberately simple, balanced profiles where all refinement is shifted to the surface: ultra-thin slips, careful polishing, and firing that leaves each bowl with its own pattern of dark accents. The pieces sit naturally within a tea context yet retain a strong sculptural presence, with the sense that the kiln has completed the potter’s gesture.
