João Gancho was born on 01/06/1963, in Lisbon, but as a baby, he went to Caldas da Rainha to his grandparents’ house. His uncles had a pottery known by the name of Bernardo Oliveira Medeiros, where João, in the interval of the games, was taking contact with the processes of working the clay. A self-taught learning that gives you a first contact with the material that will mark your future professional life. At 18 he will do his military service, which he occupies for two years, at the end of which he will race and meet the world. He then worked in a ceramics studio until 1989. In 1990, while living again in Caldas da Rainha, he enrolled in the Pottery Course at CENCAL, where he has as teachers two masters: João Reis and Armando Reis. But he receives a new call from the world and goes to Madrid to work in the studio of Manolo Fernandez, a renowned artist with public work in the Spanish capital. João Gancho returns to Caldas da Rainha in 1992 and settles in Alberto Miguel’s old studio, in Avenal. In 2004/05, he moved to Vale do Couto. He took a partial break in ceramics and also worked at sea. When he puts an end to this experience, he returns to clay. The ceramist uses stoneware as the preferred material, mixed with chamote, material that withstands high temperatures, and the pieces thus produced are very resistant. His work is based on modernized traditional forms in its decoration thanks to the integration of new textures, such as Engobes, glazes and glasses. João Gancho preferably uses earth colors, which makes his pieces have simple shape in contrast to a modern decoration. Just remember a shallow dish, large format, whose base is formed by a rainbow in neutral brown tones, in various shades. The artist, who is a user of the potter’s wheel, sells his pieces in the studio, in several national cities and abroad. Works integrated in the atelier Espaço Origami.