OUR STORY
Studio FraJas is a ceramic design collaboration between artists Francisco Rocha Salazar and Jasper Isaac Johns.
Like a musical duet, their vessels are a dialogue between two sets of hands playing in harmony. Drawing inspiration from decorative arts traditions that traveled across the medieval Mediterranean and into México, Studio FraJas reshapes familiar containers by stacking geometric forms and emblazoning them with glaze patterns that crash and swirl.
From San Luis Potosà (México) and Ann Arbor (Michigan),the two met as undergraduates at RISD. Francisco earned a degree in Painting and Jasper in Ceramics.
PROCESS
Their roles follow the two stages inherent to the ceramic process, merging Jasper’s sculpture and Francisco’s glaze painting to create lyrical vessels. In the kiln, glaze blooms and bleeds, clay shifts, and what was carefully calculated becomes alive. Years of experimentation have yielded a library of unique glazes chosen for their ability to ornament the surface with organic texture.
Jasper sculpts the form in clay assembling wheelthrown and handbuilt parts into graceful vessels.
Jasper finishes the neck for an albarello.
Jasper connects the neck and body of an albarello.
Francisco creates patterns that are multiplied and interlocked across the vessel surface.
Francisco paints glaze on a terracotta albarello.
Francisco paints the final layer on a porcelain baluster.
