500

This is the 500th piece of work sold (at SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin) since I focused on hand building porcelain work using Nerikomi colouring technique !

Other then the first one bought by a friend from home, the other 499 pieces have all been sold through galleries, at exhibitions and Biennials, in Ireland, UK, France, Germany and Singapore.

To know that people who don’t know me at all, see my works and decide to bring them home, always give me a wonderful warm feeling, and is a source of motivation to keep creating! Thank you.

 

 

Dutch Ceramics Magazine, de kleine K,

Very pleased to be interviewed by Dutch Ceramics Magazine, de kleine K,about my work.

Publication date 30th August, a few pages preview here:

 

 

New season

 Nerikomi pattern blocks have been rested for 3 months, it is time to start using them.

New patterns new form, to hand build and see my paper pattern design works out well, in porcelain, is most satisfying.

Now, have to wait and see how this form shrinks/warps/cracks during drying and firing stages.

 

 

Nerikomi ‘rainforest’

 

My early years of nerikomi patterns are all geometric repetitive forms, somehow, I felt that it is the best expression of the technique.

nerikomi 'Rainforest'

nerikomi 'Rainforest'

Then I played with making free hand curve pattern, starting with slices of black and white lines, formed into leaf shape, overlapping to form a block of pattern, named it nerikomi ‘Rainforest’.

 

I enjoyed the process very much, and like the organic curve look. Since then, every year, I make a couple each of geometric and free hand patterns.

 

 

 

Evolution of form 2/2

This is a form I thought of years ago in order to hand build a slightly bigger porcelain nerikomi vessel, that still uses very thin sheets of porcelain.

I like the method and have since modified it to create different shapes and ever bigger size works.

 

 

Evolution of form 1/2

 

This is a form I thought of years ago in order to hand build a slightly bigger porcelain nerikomi vessel, that still uses very thin sheets of porcelain.

I like the method and have since modified it to create different shapes and ever bigger size works.

 

 

Evolution of works

Fun to put my first collection of nerikomi works next to this season’s vessels. At that time, I won’t believe I could make tall/large work using my pure porcelain nerikomi method, very pleased to see the challenge tackled. 

 

 

How long does it take to make a piece of work?

 

 

When people see my nerikomi work, the most frequently asked question is: 

 

“how long does it take to make a piece of work?”

My answer:

I have a yearly cycle of work, start with creating 4-5 new nerikomi patterns, on paper, in September, when I have finished using all the pattern blocks made last year.

After finished firing all the pots, I build these new patterns in coloured porcelain in October. Normally takes a couple of weeks to wedge colours into porcelain, and to build the pattern blocks.

The pattern blocks are wrapped well, place in plastic box to relax and to let moisture level to even out, as best as possible, until next March.

I design new forms over winter months, as working with cold wet porcelain is very bad for my fingers, which are showing signs of arthritis.

In March/April, I will resume handbuilding pots. Each one wrapped up in a few layers of cling film to dry slowly in a big box, to avoid cracking.

Usually takes a month to reach firm but not totally dry stage. I will trim the work to make the nerikomi pattern clear of smudges.

When bone dry, bisque fire to 1000 degrees Celsius.

They are wet polished with 400 grid then 800 grid sand paper, so that the surface is silky smooth.

When dry, the inside is covered with transparent glaze to water proof.

When the glaze is dry, it will be fired to 1220 degrees Celsius in 12 hours.

The process of making nerikomi pattern involves a lot of cutting and assembling, and on top, porcelain is a fine and delicate material, the consequence is that more than half of my works cannot survive the whole process, develop cracks or warped badly.

So how to answer the question, how long it takes to make my work?

Article on Ceramics Ireland issue 46

 Delighted to see my works and thoughts published on Ceramics Ireland's magazine. 

 

 

Revue de la Ceramique et du Verre May/June 2019

My Work

The decorative patterns are made by Nerikomi technique: I start with a vision of the final pattern in mind, working backwards, decide how many sheets of different thickness of white, grey and black stained porcelain are needed to be cut and layered, in a special sequence to form blocks. These blocks are cut again into slices, along the side, at an angle, or at different thicknesses, and re-layered, to arrive at the desired block of pattern.

Every block of pattern is unique and cannot be replicated.

A thin slice is cut from the final block, rolled thinner to give an organic movement to the pattern, templates are cut out, and the piece is hand-built.

After all the cutting and layering processes, the final porcelain patterned sheet that I use to hand build the work is very fragile, and highly prone to cracking after firing.

On one hand the material is very fragile, on the other hand the patterns are lively and full of force.

This is like what I observe in nature, water flows smoothly around corners and yet have tremendous power, flowers so delicate and come in million of shapes and colours, birds so fragile but fly swiftly and effortlessly everywhere.

I am inspired by what I observe, I design my works to capture the lightness, the movement and the delicacy in nature that is so beautiful.

The forms and the vibrant patterns of my work attract the eyes, urge viewers to touch them, and be a pleasure to hold and use.

Form follows function - Ceramic Review UK 269

Inspiration behind the creation of Collection Sense

The fragility of using Nerikomi technique on porcelain has motivated me to create minimalist, ergonomic designs.

I deconstructed every product, be it teapot, teacup, milk jug, plate, or bowl, looked at the function of every part of the pot carefully – the body, the handle, the lid, the saucer – to try to understand what they really are for. The aim is to be sure that every aspect of every design has a reason to exist, and is not just made that way out of habit. The form of the pot naturally follows the functional requirement.

I started with the saucer, which is normally round, symmetrical, and easy to manufacture. To actually lift or carry a cup and saucer, we only need to hold the saucer at one point – meaning that having only one area curved up to invite us to hold it is sufficient. This is how the saucer with its upturned corner came to life.

The same principle is applied in creating dessert bowls and plates in the collection.

Next was the cup handle. Many commercial teacups and espresso cups are chunky, disproportionally heavy for their small size. Holding the small looped handle for such a heavy cup is not really comfortable. As her thin porcelain cups are light and small, she developed a simple concave handle, like a friendly out-stretched hand that tempts users to hold it, to feel it. The concave shape fits snugly between the grip of thumb and index fingers.

This same design is used to make the teapot lid handle, a concave shape that feels good to grip.

As for the teapot itself, larger looped handles can make it hard to stop the pot tending to tilt to the front. So a smaller looped handle should be more practical to hold the weight of a filled pot. But the drawback of a smaller looped handle is that it is easy for the knuckles to touch the hot teapot. The resulting design is an asymmetrical handle that is slightly flared away from the pot along the right edge of the handle, providing plenty of space between the knuckles and the pot.

The milk jug is shaped like a water drop, pointy at the pouring end and rounded on the other side. It fits perfectly into the natural arch of the thumb and fingers, provoking an instinctive interest to hold it.