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Claudia and Fiorella met at the German School in Petersham as both their children attend the school. Fiorella and Claudia realised that they both had the same ideas and vision in offering unique children’s workshops by merging their skills. Fiorella’s artistic talent, coupled with her knowledge and skills of creating and producing objects of art, her collaboration with renowned scientists and design as well as Claudia’s design background and teaching experience with young children, her intuitive nature and insight in unlocking a child’s learning potential seemed like an obvious and complimentary partnership.

Claudia is half Italian and half German, grew up in Singapore and has lived in Italy, France and now in the UK. She is a mother of two and currently lives in Kingston. Claudia Maschi studied French and German European Studies at the University of London, starting her career in a product design agency in Milan and then subsequently worked in packaging and branding design agencies in London, where she predominately managed global FMCG brands for clients including Nestle’ proctor & Gamble, Kimberly Clarke and Kraft. After having children, Claudia changed her career direction to teaching and has spent the last five years running ‘The Little Language House’, teaching French, German, Italian and English as a second language to children aged 2-10 years old. She is a true believer in children learning through play, and uses creative teaching methods to engage with the children and boost their self confidence. Claudia is currently embarking on a child counselling course and is interested to pursue her passion for supporting and engaging children through creativity.

Fiorella Lavado was born in Lima, Peru; studied Audio-Visual Communication, and began her career as a producer for advertising and documentaries. For the first 4 years, she worked closely with Chilean artist Carlos Leppe, who was a very strong influence in her life and work. She worked for international companies such as Adidas, focusing on commercial design and the production of PR and graphic campaigns. During and after that time she studied with different artists like Peruvian Jose Luis Arbulú and German A.R. Penk. Since 1999 Fiorella has been a freelance graphic artist in Lima, New York, Düsseldorf, and London. She has experience leading creative workshops and lectures for adults as well as children. She is currently working from her studio in London, dividing her time between art-science collaborations, web-design, illustration, and her personal projects. She is a member of the Schering Foundation Advisory Network in Berlin. Her work has been recently exhibited in Galeria KM7 in Brazil as part of a residency. For more information please visit:
www.fiorellalavado.com