Welcome
Welcome to my creative space, where clay becomes a language of texture, balance, and exploration.
Each piece is handmade with patience and curiosity — a reflection of my love for experimenting with different clays, forms, and techniques.
I’m drawn to both the clean lines of functional ceramics and the organic shapes that emerge when I work entirely by hand.
Here, every object tells a story of transformation — from raw earth to something quietly alive.
About me
My name is Valentina Di Grazia
Welcome to La Cocciuta Pottery, where my Sicilian roots and passion for psychology converge.
Growing up in Sicily, I was deeply inspired by the warmth, colors, and traditions of our pottery. Over time, my background in psychology has shaped the way I approach clay — as a medium for reflection, grounding, and connection.
Working with my hands has become a mindful and almost therapeutic process, a dialogue between emotion and form.
Through each piece, I seek to blend heritage and self-expression, inviting others to pause, feel, and reconnect with simple beauty.
About the name La Cocciuta
La Cocciuta means “the stubborn one” in Italian — a word that also carries within it coccio, the Italian term for an earthenware object or shard of pottery, often used for everyday tableware.
The name reflects both my character and my craft: a blend of persistence, experimentation, and affection for the humble beauty of handmade ceramics.
It’s a reminder that from simple clay and small imperfections, something timeless and full of life can emerge.
Gallery
Here you will find a selection of my work, from functional ware to sculptural vessels and vases.
Unfinished
Progetto Donna - Exhibition
“Unfinished” is born from the idea that neither artworks nor the condition of women can ever be truly complete. The organic, open structure — almost skeletal — stands fragile and strong at once, like a living body that grows, adapts, and resists.
When Marinella and Rosa invited me to create a piece for the award evening ‘Progetto Donna’, the shape emerged almost instinctively — as if it had been waiting to take form. It was a shared vision from the very beginning, a dialogue of intuition and emotion.
Unfinished embodies fullness and emptiness, beauty and imperfection — the dualities that reflect the very essence of femininity. Its cavities are both breath and wound, space and substance; they hold within them the tension between what is seen and what remains untold.
Even today, speaking about women and feminism remains unfinished — a discourse still evolving, still necessary. It is a journey made of progress and resistance, of spaces yet to be claimed and voices yet to be fully heard. This work stands within that movement, as both a reflection and a quiet act of defiance: a celebration of what has been shaped, and an invitation to imagine what is still to come.