The Delicate Porcelain

The Delicate Porcelain is a textbook on working with clay, which is different from all other types of material. A publication for experienced or beginner ceramists who want to turn their attention specifically to working with porcelain, immerse themselves in the context of contemporary authors, learn the technical tricks of working with this complex material and trace the history of the transformation of porcelain forms.

The Delicate Porcelain is divided into four semantic blocks:

History — timeline with an emphasis on key forms and products;

Knowledge — the textbook itself with step-by-step instructions and a story about all possible currents;

Philosophy — interview with Edmund de Waal. The artist from England actively uses porcelain in his installations and writes many books on the topic of working and interacting with this material;

Experience — artistic part. 28 contemporary authors working closely with porcelain and using unexpected properties of this material.

There are three elements of transparency in the publication that create the effect of end-to-end design:

Professional ceramist’s comments — blue text appears in various sections throughout the book explaining how the object was made. Every such text is preceded by an image of a blue vase.

Footnotes — all footnotes to one article are placed on the last page, the beginning of each of them is located approximately in the same place as the word that the footnotes explain.

The changing shape of an object — the grid has a central point where a large object is located, and another large object is placed on the back side. Due to the translucency of the paper, a play of form occurs, and the first two shapes generate another one.