MAYFIELD MUSE // LILLI BOISSELET, CLAY BY LB
Name: Lilli Boisselet
Label: Clay By LB
Year founded: 2022
(Lilli wears the Friends with Frank Vivienne Shirt Dress throughout)
What inspired you to create your brand?
I lost my job as a photojournalist at the start of 2020 and drew back to my Interior Design roots to work with clay in the lockdowns. It grew so naturally from there - I spent the long lockdown days interning in a clay studio in Sydney and I’ve never left. I love being able to ground my hands in the earth all day and to build a brand that is my vision, rather than only photographing other peoples’ visions. The last few years have highlighted how important connection is with loved ones and I hope to create pieces that play a role in bringing people together.
Describe your brand in three words.
Connective. Soft. Calmly joyful.
Favourite object to make?
An animal bowl inspired by my time in Madagascar that I made for my partner when we first met. It’s the only thing I’ve ever made that I’ll never sell, it’s the only piece I have made that is in our home. It’s so meaningful to both of us in being brave enough to follow our instincts for a fulfilling life for ourselves and each other, and a reminder to delight in the simple things, always.
Commercially, I absolutely loved custom designing serving pieces for Georgia Fowlers recent wedding with stylist superstar Laice Bollen. It’s hard to pick a favourite from that collection, but designing the sculptural candleholders was really special.
Favourite brand moment?
Customers sending me photos of their gatherings with loved ones and my pieces. It’s everything I ever hoped for in starting the brand.
How long does it take you to form and finish a piece?
It varies from half an hour to shape an oyster shell dish to more than a week or two for building the larger, more complex vases and candlestick holders. Clay is a cruel mistress - you cannot rush her with artificial heat or cracks come through in the firing process. It’s taught me patience and surrender as a medium.
Who’s your style icon?
Jess Blanche from RUSSH, always Penny Lane from Almost Famous.
First big fashion splurge you ever made?
I saved up my pay checks from my very first interior design job to buy a Givenchy Nightingale bag in 2011. It lived in storage for many years as I travelled constantly, but now, I still use it - a soon-to-be nappy bag! I also am obsessed with Friends With Frank coats, they’re worth every cent.
Biggest ever fashion mistake?
Always putting my hair in a bun. I love the messy blonde beach waves of letting my hair dry naturally but it’s always so hot in the studio! And thinking I can pull off wearing my partners linen pants rolled up with heels and a blazer …
Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
So many gems over the years from my travels as a photojournalist, I was so privileged to meet so many fascinating and wise people from such a cross-section of life. A coffee farmer in Ethiopia told me that ‘not everything has a way of being translated into English’, and I found that such a mindset shift - in only knowing English we live in such a limited capacity of knowledge and language and what the world has to offer.
Morning beverage of choice?
A long black or an oat latte with a croissant every morning.
Something you’ve read or listened to that has inspired you lately?
Prisons We Choose To Live Inside by Doris Lessing and an oral history of Kathmandu by Thomas Bell are on my bedside. I’ve also been reading Alan Watts lately and always something by Anais Nîn. My partner Luke has a record player set up in our living room and there’s nothing better than putting on something unknown from his mind-blowing vinyl collection and sitting together in the evenings with a peppermint tea. I crave for calmness and simplicity of it after a long, hectic day. I interviewed Banjo Lucia and Beckah Amani last year at Bigsound, they are both inspiring women and releasing lots of amazing music at the moment.
Favourite colour and why do you love it?
I’m in love with cornflower blue for clothes. For photography though, always, black and white and film.
Any holidays booked?
We will be back in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal by the end of the year as I work there and we raise our first child together. I can’t wait. Before that, just resting and nesting in Bondi, Sydney.
What’s next in the world of Clay by LB?
It’s a little up in the air at the moment as I’m nine months pregnant! I’m looking forward to taking some time to slow down and be inspired by a new moment in my life, and hopefully return with new ideas and a new rigour for creativity.
I’m so thrilled to become a mother, being pregnant has been the most wonderful time, it’s cracking me open in all the best ways.
