Francesca Geromino – Italian Ceramic Artist, Potter & Teacher in Fremantle
Mission
My mission is to remind women of themselves. Through clay, I invite a return to creativity, self-care, and expression, and I create a welcoming space where people can slow down, explore, and reconnect with their own creative voice. My workshops and studio practice are rooted in connection, community, and the shared experience of making.
Fra's Ceramics
Francesca Geromino is an Italian ceramic artist and pottery teacher based in Fremantle, Perth. Her work is deeply rooted in her upbringing in La Maddalena, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea, where she was surrounded by the colours, plants, and textures of Sardinian nature.
Drawing from these memories, her ceramics evoke the landscapes of her hometown through organic forms and highly textured surfaces. She often uses natural materials and imprinting techniques, such as pressing real plants and flowers directly into the clay, creating surfaces that feel like visual fossils of nature. She also reinterprets organic structures such as coral, transforming them into functional forms including vases, lamps, and bowls—bringing elements of art into everyday life.
Her practice explores the tension between functionality and sculptural expression. While many pieces sit within the language of homeware, each object carries the presence of contemporary ceramic art—bridging use and contemplation, utility and emotion.
Her work is experimental and process-driven, constantly evolving through the exploration of different clays, glazes, and techniques. Each piece becomes a record of touch, nature, and time.
History
Her passion for ceramics started in the early ages when she visited the Tuscany region, in Italy. She was only 5 years old and got completely fascinated by the local potters making arts in their studios along the city center streets. Although she couldn’t access a potter course until she was 27 when finally a local artist in her hometown opened a pottery studio and classes. After he took her first class she was completely hooked.
When she decided to become a professional potter, she had been doing pottery for 8 years as a hobby, already completed her Master degree in Civil Engineering and was working in a corporate job in London. Due to an unfulfilled and stressful job role, and during a very difficult time due to chronic pain, she decided to go back to pottery and started a College course Level 2 ceramics. During that year of college, she could cover a great range of handbuilding techniques and decoration styles. Pottery has been a huge part of her mind-body connection and brain retraining to overcome chronic pain.
After the college course, she joined Pottery studio London, a communal studio with famous artists and potters where she could learn so much by taking inspiration from them and seeing them at work.
Today
Her confidence as a potter grew so much that she opened her own handmade pottery label Fra’s Ceramics and never looked back.
Her personal journey brought her from London to Fremantle, where she continued her studies at Tafe and Fremantle Art Centre.
She also brought her label to Fremantle, continuing her pottery business.
Now she considers herself local, loving her life in Freo with her two little kids Gabriel and Henri.
Francesca now hosts private workshops and classes for adults and kids and sells her work online, in shops and local artisan markets.