For Canberra artist Tania Vrancic, the art of ceramics runs through her veins – it just made sense that’s what she was meant to do.

“I always knew I wanted to do ceramics. My uncle was a potter in Adelaide and even though I didn’t have a lot to do with him, I remember being a child and visiting him at his house and being in awe. There was art everywhere, ceramics everywhere,” Tania said.

“Even though he was an artist, I still didn’t know that that was something you could do as a career, so that’s why I ended up going into fashion first.”

Owner of her own ceramics business for around 11 years now, Tania first dabbled in fashion having her own store and label in Canberra, but closed the business just after having her daughter 18 years ago.  

Deciding to take a few years off to be with her two children, she started scrapbooking, “as a lot of new mums do”, and realised she didn’t like a lot of the formatting, so set out to create her own.

Realising she had ended up making mini albums that were morphing into arty things, rather than crafty things, was where her inspiration for collage was formed.

“It’s hard to describe what I love so much about it. I think having been a dressmaker, maybe that’s part of it? You know, just doing something with my hands. I’m even starting to paint and things like that,” Tania said.

“I did work on the wheel, but I don’t find it as enjoyable as hand building where it’s just endless with what you can do. I started by rolling out slabs from a block of clay, and then after my shoulder got sore a few years ago, I started doing plaster boards.

“I’ve now been using clay slips with stain in it, so I can paint and do monoprinting on the plasterboard or inside a mould and then I pour the white porcelain on top of it, and it peels off like a piece of pastry.”

Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs and small business owners has engrained Tania’s love and dedication for running her own store and doing all the behind the scenes work herself.

“I like to make things and I like to sell them. For me, it’s not so much about the money, it’s about someone wanting to purchase it and take it home with them. That’s when the process is complete,” Tania said.

“I do everything for the business. I was contemplating on whether to actually grow it and get in help, but I think I’ve changed my mind since injuring my elbow. I’d like to do an even higher quality of work and even less of it – I want to be more purposeful in what I make.”

Canberra’s own Handmade Markets are a highlight for Tania, as she enjoys forming the in-person connections with her customers, which just isn’t the same through her online store.

“When you get about 16,000 people walking past your store, lots of varieties of people talk to you and you get a really broad view about what people think about what you’re doing. Some of those comments you shelve, like ‘I could get this at Kmart’,” laughed Tania.

“That’s fine, they’re not my customer. My customer is someone that comes and goes, ‘Oh! Look at these layers and I love the detail; I want to know more about the story behind this range’. That’s what I love.”

Tania’s work is constantly flowing from one collection to the next, and she said her favourite is generally the one she’s working on in the moment, although there are a few ceramic pieces close to her heart.

“Even though I do love selling my work, there are still some pieces that are just for me – I just put a piece aside yesterday! I’ll immediately know if I love a piece and want to keep it, and I do keep a lot of the samples as well because then I see the process and the evolution of my work,” she said.

Heavily influenced by Australian flora, especially since being stuck in lockdown, Tania’s latest series reflects her observations of the landscapes surrounding her.

“Since Covid, I’ve been walking up and down Red Hill and so this latest series is called ‘Walking Red Hill’. I just love looking at the leaves and I have a little collection on my wall of the ones I’ve collected,” she said.

“I’m hoping it will grow into something else, and I’d really like to find a new exhibition range for the ceramics that marries back in with the clay as well.”

Most people’s dream in life is to discover their true passion and to be able make a living from doing just that. Tania is one of the lucky ones who is living her dream.

“Does it feel like work? Oh, gosh no. There’s very little that feels like work,” she smiled.

“It just makes sense. Straight away when I started making, it just made sense.”

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