Milan-Based Maddalena Selvini Shows Off Her Artistry With Pietra Ollare and Ceramic Products

Probably not many thirtysomethings long for a time before central heating, but Milan-based Maddalena Selvini thinks we’ve lost something in the process of modernization. Once, we gathered around a stove for warmth and kinship; now, we waste money and energy by cranking the room heat to over 70 degrees. “Worst of all,” she says, “we then forget it’s actually cold outside, and end up being completely detached from our surroundings and ourselves.”

Maddalena Selvinilea holds an aroma diffuser. Photography by Anouchinsky/Living Inside.

Selvini, whose eclectic background encompasses jewelry, metalsmithing, and product design, graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven’s department of Man and Well-being. The core of her modular S.Pot system is a large stone cooking vessel for warming food (and hands). From the stone waste used to manufacture the pot, she creates a line of ceramics. The stone itself, called Pietra Ollare, comes from Valtellina in the Italian Alps. Its heat-retaining properties aren’t limited to the kitchen: She also makes a bed warmer from the stuff.