Porcelain Music

Who would have thought of using porcelian bowls to make music. Of course I knew that a bowl had a very nice ring when tapped, something  which I love about porcelain. But Roos Van de Velde takes it to a higher level. She plays on the bowls she makes. I visited her yesterday (with a group of fellow ceramists) and she gave a little performance, the quality is not great (you can hear us oh-ing and ah-ing in the background ;-), but I'd like to share it wih you anyway. The music on her website is also composed, made and sung by her.

An impression of the visit, her house and her work I will post later on the Dutch Handmade website.

Reading by Jeanne Opgenhaffen

Yesterday evening I went to a reading by Jeanne Opgenhaffen. She does not give much readings anymore, but Katja from Atelier K! had convinced her otherwise. Jeanne works mainly with porcelain and showed lots of pictures of her work, explaining what they presented and what had influenced her: large landscapes.

The wall hangings you see here are in real life 1x1 meter and consist of numberless wafer-tin porcelain tiles. I really like that her work is so pure and natural, that you can feel the wind, the waves and the force of nature.

Less natural, but just as impressive are the wall hangings and objects she makes using transfers. She makes her own transfers using a silk-screen print technique to add a picture or text to each tile of a wall hanging. Here is one she made for a Belgium newspaper:

 These works could take a year to make, to see some result sooner she's at the moment working on a series of little boxes which have all a different image on it, again using the transfer technique. She starts with an image she draws or paints herself on paper or on the computer. 

I liked her a down to earth attitude and she presents it as if it is all very simple and easy what she does. I guess it is once you have mastered all the skills she has. And fair enough that she did not give away all her trade secrets, but enough hints to know where to start.