When Sarah Nedovic Gaunt first started sculpting, she was working out of her kitchen. “In the early days, we were in this really, really old apartment – it was so cold, and there was no heating …. so I used to slow-cook something in the oven to heat the space,” she says with a laugh.
Over the past three years things have changed rapidly for the artist. Working with clay has moved from an all-consuming hobby to her full-time job. Her sculptural lamps have become a favourite with interior designers, both in Australia and overseas – and last year Dior commissioned two pieces for its spa in Paris. “That was amazing,” says Nedovic Gaunt. “A ‘pinch myself’ sort of moment.”
What’s even more remarkable is that all this began almost by chance, when a friend who was about to head overseas gifted Nedovic Gaunt a bag of clay. “I just loved it instantly,” she says. After doing some experimentation on her own, she enrolled in a semester of life sculpture classes, where she “learned how to sculpt the female body and use the tools to create quite detailed pieces”. Any gaps in her knowledge she filled in with Youtube tutorials and one-on-one demos at Northcote Pottery in Melbourne.
Her lamps and candleholders are immediately striking. They feature bold shapes, usually in the clay’s original earthy tones, that balance curves and angles. They’re often asymmetrical, yet somehow perfectly balanced.
“A lot of my designs start as really basic elements, and it’s just about connecting those shapes to create a harmonious design overall,” she says.
More often than not, the pieces aren’t glazed. Nedovic Gaunt is drawn to the stories the clay tells about the Australian earth it was dug from, and wants those stories to continue even in their new form.
Initially she balanced work as a freelance textile designer with her growing, intense passion for working with clay. “I’d get home at night and just make stuff – I was obsessed,” she says.
Eventually she put her textile work on hold and turned her full attention to the sculptures. The 15 years she spent in textiles has, however, helped shape how she approaches these works. She starts out with small sketches, and has notebooks filled with blueprints for potential lamps and candleholders. Promising sketches are drawn to scale on a big roll of brown paper, then left for a day or two so she can let the idea sit and make sure the balance looks right.
Earth and light come together frequently in Nedovic Gaunt’s work, which includes both lamps and the candleholders, her latest collection. “I really like my pieces to have a dual purpose – to be a piece of art and also to be a practical piece for the home,” she says.
Her recent lamp series is an homage to significant women in history, with the name of each piece giving a subtle nod to the woman who inspired it. For example, Lady 18 references Aretha Franklin, who died in 2018.
The idea behind her new, unnamed collection came from time spent with her family in Melbourne’s lockdown.
“The overall theme I’m working with is that ritual and calmness associated with lighting a candle,” she says. “For me, lighting a candle feels slightly indulgent and a bit special – and that’s why I used to light them a lot during lockdown.”
The new collection, limited to 50 pieces, reflects Nedovic Gaunt’s distinctive style, with disparate shapes coming together harmoniously to create something new. There’s a calm that comes with the natural beauty of the clay, the unexpected marriage of sharp edges and gentle bends.
Nedovic Gaunt no longer works out of her kitchen – 18 months ago she moved into a space she shares with interior design firm Pasquale Cook. “It’s a beautiful old building – all floorboards and stained-glass windows and big white walls,” she says. “And because it was a home, it’s just got this lovely feel – it doesn’t feel like a clean-cut studio”.
Food, however, still plays a big role in her process. In the new space, in addition to more room and flexibility, there’s the added benefit of a window overlooking an alley that services all the nearby restaurants – including one where a close friend of hers works. “Sometimes he’ll drop fresh bread, coffee or lunch through my window.”
