Matthieu Liévois

Potter-ceramicist for 40 years, specialist in the making of glazes, and founder of Creamik, the professional school of ceramics.

Matthieu Lievois’s biography

At the age of 20, after studying horticulture, a visceral desire to create with my hands drives me to discover ceramics at a municipal workshop in Grenoble. The teacher encourages me to delve deep into my creative process. A year later, I follow a professional training course in the Paris region with two potters (Drillon and Vivien), then additional training in glaze research, with Pierre Lemaître. I move to Charente in 1982 and, while producing utilitarian ceramics, I refine my throwing technique and undertake extensive research on stoneware and porcelain glazes.

The alchemy that takes place in the heat of the kiln fascinates me with each unloading. Like a cook in front of his stove, I mix the ingredients according to my intuition and let the heat do its work. Step by step, I end up with glaze textures and colours that I like. This work allows me to refine my own research technique, to get quickly to the essentials.

In 1989, I move my studio to Brittany, in the Gulf of Morbihan. For more than 20 years I learn to understand the material I use, to love it, to respect it and to consider it as co-creator of my work.

In 2009, I feel the need to share and transmit what fire and clay have taught me, so that these techniques are available for the expression of everyone.

After serious renovation of my workshop, the CREAMIK school was born.

Today, more than 260 people have taken my courses.

Nickel ceramic piece with stick crystals
Vase with highly developed nickel crystals, fired in a gas kiln (flame marks in the underlayer)
Teapot with large nickel crystals, fired in an electric kiln. Each ring in the crystals represents a firing level.
Vase crystallized with copper, first fired in a gas kiln in oxidation (to develop the crystals), then fired again at 700°C in reduction to turn the copper from green to red.
Crystallized red is the most difficult color to achieve with glazes.

Matthieu Liévois’s Online Gallery

The ceramics of Matthieu Liévois are to be discovered in his online gallery