Dilara Harmanci (Istanbul, 1992) creates pottery to preserve moments, to give shape to memories, to immortalise feelings.

She explains it as she shows two plates shaped from twigs she gathered while she took a walk in the country. The pieces came from the kiln in her workshop in A Coruña (north west Spain), behind a large window that lets in light from the Atlantic and the occasional commotion and noise from a students' playground."I don't need the plates, but I do need to remember the walk, my path through the trees", she says while busily working on a new series of mugs in the free time she finds from her other activity, the family business.

Dilara graduated in Economics because her father would only let her study something that allowed her to work in the company her grandfather established in Turkey almost a century ago. Now she balances her work in the family textile company with clay."My father supports me with my pottery. He doesn't need me to work for him 24 hours a day", she says.

- And ten or twenty years from now, where do you see yourself?

- I want more time and more freedom… but right now with Kora [her 18-month-old daughter] that's impossible. I want to do more pottery and make it for myself, not to sell it. If people like it, they can buy it, but I don't want to have to make ten pieces of this or that or the other. I want to make three or four pieces, no more.

For example, when I took the plates based on the twigs out of the kiln and saw how they'd turned out, I had the idea of making a large lamp stand, but I can't start on that until September [in three months' time] because I've got other commissions to do. I'd like to have time to make my ideas come true… In ten years' time I see myself in a house in the country, only making pottery. That's my dream. [laughs]

- How did you start on your artistic career?

- I always made things with my hands at home. When I started working with clay, I liked it so much that I gave up on photography, which was what I wanted to do when I was little. Now I like taking photos of Kora and our trips, but not as a professional. My profession is clay.

- Your grandmother also had an influence on you.

- Yes, my mother's mother. She has a house in the country and she's made everything with her hands. She made the curtains, she covered the cables with thread, she made rings and pendants when we were kids, clothes… In Turkey, women didn't work outside the home when she was young. She couldn't have a business, but she did everything with her hands.

- And then you learnt ceramics.

- When I went back to Turkey after studying at university in Milan, pottery allowed me to escape from the chaos of Istanbul. And when I came to A Coruña, a new city where nobody knows you, that was also a way to escape from the situation and socialise, listen to Spanish and get to know people. I don't like always doing the same thing and clay offers me a lot of options, it's not always the same thing.

- It's a long process: you mould it, you bake it, you glaze it…

- For example, today I'm going to make these pieces, and tomorrow I'm going to glaze them, and that's two very different things.

- Do you prefer something that's utilitarian or decorative?

- Utilitarian. I love using things, not just putting them somewhere and leaving them.

- Why is pottery so fashionable now?

- It's relaxing and people are looking for that feeling. Touching clay is like going for a walk, but the clay's right here, you don't have to go somewhere else to relax.

- Why do people like the pieces?

- Unique pieces have a soul. My works have something of me in them, with the way I am, the positive and the negative… I make these pieces for three, four or five days. Yesterday I took photos of them, today I'm talking to you while I work… That's another reason why people like pottery, because there's a personality in each object.

- What process do you follow, which comes first, the utility or the creative idea?

- First the inspiration and then the object. The twigs were the inspiration for the plates. I thought that, since the wood is brown, black clay would be better than white. And the clay for the plates, the finish, was the inspiration for the lamp stand, but I don't need the plates or the lamp stand.

- When you talk about your pieces, it sounds like you learn a lesson from each process.

- It's not just about making something. Everything has a background. It's not just making a mug, there's something else there. I like to remember moments, that's why I also like taking photos. People really like this mug (Gingerbread Curvy Mug), but for me it's the COVID mug. I always used this mug to drink something at home during the pandemic, and after COVID I started making them for sale. For me it was a period when I launched my brand, Casa Cecu.

- A positive memory.

- Yes, it was a positive period for me: staying at home, doing lots of things. It was a great time, not a bad one… Without forgetting the people who died, I really liked staying at home for sixty days.

- What is the most difficult process for you?

- I don't like painting. I don't enjoy it. I like choosing colours, but not the process.

- And the most satisfying one?

- Moulding. When I make something, I try to change direction. If I start with a cup, I might end up with a vase. I don't say: OK, I'm going to make a vase and complete it. When I'm doing a commission I always like to make a piece for myself. One commission I'm doing now is for eight pieces, but I'm doing ten so I can keep two.

- Do you feel sad when you sell them?

- Yes, a little bit. With some of them. Sometimes I say I don't want to sell them. And sometimes I put a high price on them so they don't get bought. [laughs]

- Which are your favourites?

- I like the black jug (Irregular Midnight Sail). It's made of slabs. The slabs were very wet and difficult to control. That was an effect that just happened and I like it. This black is a special colour for me, with light, with blue.