Emily Hamann, the founder of Ignem Terrae Ceramics studio, is an artist and designer living in Sydney, Australia for many years. Emily has a bachelor of Design degree from Melbourne's prestigious fashion institute RMIT. After more than a decade of designing for the fashion industry, Emily changed the discipline, replacing the soft and often unpredictable fabric medium with a more malleable base material, clay.

Emily’s artistic practise is primarily concerned with the contrast between soft organic forms and sharp sinuous lines. A practice informed by a love of draping fabrics on a mannequin, often involving the cutting and deconstruction of classical shapes to be reinvented to create unique and entirely unexpected sculptural forms.

She uses years of experience in fashion design to draping, cutting and manipulating clay panels. As a result of this process, her sculptures often present a dynamic silhouette. She enjoys incorporating all aspects of nature into her work, and the shapes of her sculptures often mimic the periodic winds and water and other forces of nature.