Helena Prat
Hellenica Ceramics
A designer and creator of Hellenica Ceramics, Helena has a small, charming shop on carrer de la Força in Girona, where her fragile work is on display. It is precisely the fragility of these ceramic pieces that conceal their beauty and power. The shop is an art space specialised in artistic ceramics with an innovative design. It is full of precious decorative and utilitarian objects made from high-temperature ceramics. Helena also makes custom pieces to order.
She works with clays (stoneware, heat-resistant, porcelain, glass and ceramic glazes) and plays with geometric shapes and colour contrasts. Her creations are known all over the world. For Helena, ceramics are art, life and history. Her work is both the land and the sea. It is the landscape of the Empordà and the Costa Brava. In stoneware and porcelain we find the greens and the golds of wheat and barley fields, the different shades of blue, green and turquoise of our sea, and the browns and greys of the stone from the cliffs that border our coast.
For some time now, El Celler de Can Roca has been using one of her creations to present one of its star dishes. Other well-known Catalan restaurants also use her creations to serve their dishes, such as El Capritx in Terrassa (1 Michelin star), El Llevataps in Girona, Els Pescadors in Llançà, Spoonik and El Portalón in Barcelona. Helena also works on culinary projects with the chefs Pep Noguer (who disseminates and promotes the quality stamp Girona Excel·lent), and Marc Ribas of TV3 fame.
1 - Panels with stoneware tiles influenced by the Barcelona panot tile. Different designs and geometric evolutions play with colour contrasts.
2 - Blue stoneware plates and bowls reflecting the turquoise and crystalline waters of Costa Brava coves. These are similar to the ones currently used by El Celler de Can Roca.
3 - Gold-coloured porcelain bowels inspired by the wheat fields of the Empordà.
4 - The colour blue and all of its shades are present in many of the pieces.
5 - Porcelain paste. Its power to transform the final pieces is surprising, magical and fascinating.
6 - Tools. Although each and every one has its own function, the most important tool, the essential thing without which Helena cannot work are her hands.
7 - Small coloured porcelain gems inspired in organic irregular shapes.
8 - Pieces of black heat-resistant stoneware.
9 - A piece by her teacher, the artist Antoni Brengaret i Framis. Professor and Director of the Groc Art and Design School in Barcelona.