Tiles shaped like long, flat pieces of bamboo. Bright green, giant lily pads. Pieces indented with the shapes of feathers or rice husks.

狭长、扁平的竹片状瓷片。硕大的鲜绿色的睡莲叶。留有羽毛或谷壳痕迹的陶瓷作品。

Ceramics that take their cue from nature are the hallmark of Gaya Ceramic & Design, an internationally recognized studio run by Michela Foppiani and Marcello Massoni. Based out of a village in Bali where the roads are jammed with scooters and roosters crow intermittently, the couple oversee the making by hand of between 2,000 to 4,000 pieces per month and have about 60 local employees.

Gaya陶瓷设计工作室(Gaya Ceramic & Design)的一大特色就是其陶瓷作品的灵感往往都是源于大自然的。这家享誉国际的工作室由米凯拉・弗皮亚尼(MichelaFoppiani)和马尔切洛・马索尼(Marcello Massoni)经营。它位于巴厘岛的一个村庄外，那里的道路上挤满了摩托车，不时还能听到公鸡的打鸣声。夫妻两人监管着每月2,000至4,000件作品的制作生产过程，他们雇佣了大约60名当地工匠。

In addition to private clients around the world, the couple works with companies such as Amanresorts, Donna Karan, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and Bulgari Hotels & Resorts. 'The pieces they make are very emotional,' says Italian designer Marta Giardini, who first discovered the couple in 1999 and commissioned them to make a few pieces for Armani/Casa's debut collections. 'I try to work with [them] in every company I am at and with new, different projects.'

除了遍布世界各地的私人客户外，这对夫妇还与安缦酒店(Amanresorts)、唐娜・凯伦( Donna Karan)、丽思卡尔顿酒店(Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.)和宝格丽酒店及度假村(Bulgari Hotels & Resorts)这样的公司客户合作。意大利设计师马尔塔・贾尔迪尼(Marta Giardini)说：“他们的作品充满了情感。我每次到不同的公司都会尝试在新的项目上与[他们]合作。”贾尔迪尼第一次找到这对夫妻是在1999年，当时他委托他们为阿玛尼/卡萨(Armani/Casa)的首秀系列做了几件陶瓷作品。

One of Gaya's specialties is outfitting a house from top to bottom, which it is currently doing for an architect in Lima, Peru. They are making 'tea cups to cake stands to everything, 450 pieces in a beautiful raku,' a Japanese-style of pottery, Ms. Foppiani says.

Gaya的专长之一就是为一套房子全方位配备所需的全部瓷器。工作室目前正和秘鲁利马的一位建筑师合作。弗皮亚尼说，他们正在制作“从茶杯到蛋糕架，到所有的一切，美丽的乐烧窑风格（日本的一种陶艺风格）作品450件”。

A client in Paris recently ordered a table setting for his house for 50 people, says Mr. Massoni. 'We said, '15 or 50?' He said, 'Five-zero. That's what our table capacity is.' And then he said, 'OK, it isn't really a house. It's a castle.''

马索尼说，最近一位巴黎的客户下了张单：要为自己房子里可以供50人就餐的餐桌订做餐具。“我们问，到底是‘15还是50’？他说：‘五-零，这是我们家餐桌的容量。’然后他接着说，‘好吧，这可能不能算一个房子，而是个城堡。’”

When Catherine Bencheghib and her family moved from Paris to Seminyak in Bali, she had the couple design 12 ceramic lily pads in different sizes -- the largest more than 30 inches in diameter -- that float in the four big ponds in her garden. 'There's a bit of engineering to them,' says Mrs. Bencheghib. 'They are visually appealing from a distance, but you get a second sensation when you get closer to them and see what they are made of.'

当凯瑟琳・本切吉布(Catherine Bencheghib)和她的家人从巴黎搬到巴厘岛的塞米亚克(Seminyak)时，她请马索尼夫妇为她设计了12款不同尺寸的陶瓷睡莲叶──直径最大的超过30英寸（约合76厘米）──这些陶瓷睡莲叶现在就漂浮在她家花园里的四个大池塘中。本切吉布说：“让这些睡莲叶漂浮起来需要用到一些工程学知识。它们从远处看视觉上很具吸引力，但当你走近看到它们的材质的时候，又会有一个全新的感觉。”

A large lily pad costs around $350, while a simple table setting of five or six different pieces will run about $1,000. A more complex table setting with 10 or 12 pieces would cost $3,000. The couple take orders as small as $500 but have done ones that cost more than $200,000.

大片睡莲叶的成本为350美元左右，而一套简单的有五到六件餐具的套装差不多要1000美元。一套比较复杂的有10到12件餐具的套装需要花费3000美元。马索尼夫妇接500美元左右的小订单，也曾接过超过20万美元的大单。

Ms. Foppiani, 41, and Mr. Massoni, 45, are 'a couple in life and work' and have three young children. The two sculptors worked in a tiny studio in their hometown of Piacenza, Italy, when they started making a few things for Armani/Casa.

弗皮亚尼现年41岁，马索尼45岁，已有三个孩子，他们是“工作上的拍档、生活上的伴侣”。最初为阿玛尼/卡萨制作少量作品的时候，两位雕塑家还在他们的家乡意大利皮亚琴察(Piacenza)的一个小作坊里工作。

Soon after, at the 2001 Milan Furniture Fair, the couple met Stefano Grandi, head of an Italian company that makes motors and an art patron. Mr. Grandi, who is from Bologna, was already co-owner of an art gallery, restaurant and villa project in Sayan Village near Ubud's scenic rice paddies. He invited them to move to Bali, where he would provide the funds to start a ceramics business. In 2003, the couple moved to Bali, and started production in 2004.

随后很快，在2001年米兰家具展(Milan Furniture Fair)上，夫妻俩遇到了斯特凡诺・格兰迪(Stefano Grandi)，他是意大利一家发动机公司的老板，也是一位艺术赞助人。格兰迪来自博洛尼亚(Bologna)，当时已经与他人合作投资了一家集艺术画廊、餐厅与度假别墅为一体的项目，位于有着优美稻田风光的乌布(Ubud)附近的萨彦村(Sayan Village)。格兰迪邀请他们搬去巴厘岛，在那里他可以为他们提供资金，启动陶瓷生意。2003年，夫妇俩搬到巴厘岛，并在2004年开始了生产。

Before making anything, Ms. Foppiani and Mr. Massoni consult with clients or their architects and designers by email or in person. They create mood boards and write up concepts. Then they make physical samples. It can take months, sometimes a year, to complete their designs.

在弗皮亚尼和马索尼动手设计作品之前，他们先会面对面或者通过邮件咨询客户或客户的建筑师和设计师。他们会使用情绪板，并写出设计理念。然后做出实物样品。他们可能会花几个月，有时甚至是一年的时间，才能完成设计。

'I was quite blown away by how much they invest in the individual pieces,' says Asmeen Khan, who works in international development in Washington, D.C., and commissioned a dinner set for 12 for her vacation home in Ubud. 'Each piece, each plate, is like a work of art.'

在华盛顿从事国际化发展工作的艾斯明・卡恩(Asmeen Khan)说：“我对于他们投入到每一件作品上的心血感到吃惊。每一件成品，每一个盘子，都像艺术品。”卡恩为自己位于乌布的度假小屋订做了一套12件的餐具。

On a recent weekday morning, as roosters crowed outside, Ms. Foppiani worked in a small room, closely examining a mug with a wide, flat handle that has an old, block print design.

在最近某个工作日的早晨，外面是公鸡的啼叫声，弗皮亚尼坐在一个小房间里，仔细地检查着一个有着宽宽的扁型把手的马克杯，杯上印有老旧的木刻版画图案。

'We don't have a catalog of 20 pieces in 10 colors,' says Mr. Massoni. Instead, 'we do a lot of archiving.'

马索尼说：“我们没有那种展示20种产品、而且每种都分十种颜色的样品目录”。但是，“我们做了很多分类存档”。

Their staff devote a lot of time to photographing and uploading images and recording the color, shape and clay composition details for every item that is made, including samples that are rejected by clients and sent back for minor revisions. 'We are in love with ceramics. It means we want to find just the right gradation of what we would like, a little more of this and not that,' says Ms. Foppiani, adding with a laugh, however, that it can 'sometimes, get to be too much.'

他们的工作人员花了大量时间去拍摄和上传图像，记录每一件成品的颜色、形状和组成细节，包括被客户拒绝的样品，或者那些送回来要做小修改的产品。弗皮亚尼说：“我们深爱着陶瓷，这意味着我们希望找到最精确的灰度，这一件要多一点，而那件不需要。”她笑着补充说，但是“有的时候可能就会显得有点偏执了”。

Physical samples are kept in large cabinets and open shelves in an upstairs space. Mr. Massoni estimates they have about 8,000 pieces that can be used as a starting point for brainstorming future work.

实物样品都保存在楼上的大柜子和开放式货架上。马索尼估计他们有大约8000件作品都可以直接作为将来设计的参考。

On the ground floor, in a large workroom, there is the sound of clay slabs being pounded. A few artisans are seated at spinning pottery wheels and there are trays of drying items waiting to be fired.

在一楼的一间大工作室里，能够听到反复敲击粘土的声音。几个工匠坐在旋转的陶轮旁工作，有几盘正在干燥的物件正等着入窑烧制。

'About 90% of the work is clay thrown on a wheel,' says Mr. Massoni. Each piece then gets hand trimmed or pinched into shape, he says, showing how a thin tube of clay will be shaped into candelabra that looks like a long, thin piece of coral.

马索尼说：“在陶轮上拉坯大约占据了90%的工作量。”之后每件作品还需手工修整或塑形，他边说边将一根细管状的粘土塑造成一个看起来像细长珊瑚礁形状的烛台。

The couple built their own kilns. While industrial operations use ones with conveyor belts that are hundreds of feet long, feeding items into areas with different temperatures, their two have traditional one-space chambers 'that we heat up and cool down.'

这对夫妇建造了自己的窑炉。如今工业化的制陶方式所用的窑炉通常会使用数百英尺长的传送带，将物件送到不同温度下的区域烧制，但是他们的两个窑炉依然是传统的单一式炉腔，“我们自己对其加热和冷却”。

Says Mr. Massoni: 'Our target is to work in this borderline between craftsman and industry because we are challenged to make new designs and we are flexible. We want to keep the handmade aspect.'

马索尼说：“我们的目标是介于手工和工业化之间，因为我们面临的挑战是要做出全新的设计，我们的做法很灵活。我们希望保持手工制作这一特色。”