Summary

I work with naked, unglazed porcelain. I hand turn my pieces to the verge of destruction in order to find the limits of the material. They are then subject to the ferocity of the kiln – fired to 1300 degrees – an environment in which the fragile clay body twists and sways in its molten state. When finally they emerge, transformed by lyrical alchemy, they are shell-like, shimmering with a papery translucence – almost see through...

Organisation

PORCELUME

Team

Colin Hopkins - ceramicist/ architect
Ilona Topolcsanyi - ceramicist

Inspiration/Method

PORCELUME was founded in 2012 to showcase the work of musician, architect and ceramicist Colin Hopkins. Hopkins is an award winning jazz pianist who has relatively recently developed a passion for recording fluid, musical gestures into the body and surface of hand thrown porcelain objects. After having studied traditional Japanese ceramic techniques he has spent several years perfecting the art of hand-crafting extremely fine porcelain so that the objects he makes have a `singing translucency'.

Design Challenge

'Rain Chain' is a hand made, modular and flexible porcelain light/ sculpture developed specifically to give human warmth and character to LED strip lighting. The shimmering flow of light makes a playful, abstracted and contemporary reference to the traditional Japanese rain chain that functions to carry rain water from the roof. This is a modular system that can (in theory) be extended infinitely...!