Lauren Nauman

Since I don’t decide the final form of my pieces, there is sometimes a gap or broken line that I fill with a piece of brass wire after the firing to uplift the piece instead of discarding it. This is a 3D play on the practice of Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold.

For the black lines I mix the porcelain slip with a ceramic stain before casting the piece. This way the piece has the color all the way through the clay instead of a surface treatment. This allows me to have a sanded matte finish, without requiring added color or glaze application.