Translucent porcelain lamp shade

Process & Production

The lamp shade is cast with porcelain slip in a plaster mould. When dry, the clay is partly painted with shellac, a rapidly drying natural polymer made by the female lac beetle (Laccifer lacca). Then with the use of a wet sponge, one can gently wash of clay areas that is not covered (isolated) by shellac, as shown on the detail image. The brown colour is the shellac, which burns away already at appr. 500°C in the firing process. The result is an embossed surface with different thicknesses of clay. After firing and sintering of the porcelain on 1220°C, the result is an object that brings light through in different levels.