Vanessa Lucas
Vanessa Lucas — 'Frilled Terebra', 2019
"The undulating concentric ridges on the vitrified exterior of these porcelain vases are reminiscent of the surface of a shell that I found washed up on a Tasmanian beach. It was a Placid Frilled Venus and the exterior was sculpted with numerous lamellar ridges. These protruding plates of tissue provided the shell with protection and strength. The shell itself provided protection for the soft bodied mollusc that used it’s own secretions to create a shell as a home. It would have taken years for the mollusc and it’s shell to grow. Attaching the ridges to the outside of these vases was painstakingly slow. Months in the making seemed like a long time in the studio, but it was very rapid compared with the task of the mollusc in growing the beautiful shell I found on the beach."
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Vanessa Lucas strives always to design and make objects that are a source of beauty in everyday life while providing pleasure through functional excellence. Using slip-casting techniques, she produces porcelain tableware that is designed with assiduous refinement where the form and function of each object work harmoniously together. Careful formulation of satin glazes achieve a restrained shell-like sheen that allows the vessels to emanate an intrinsic luminescence. Both the surfaces and forms of her vessels bear reference to elements of the landscape that have been worn smooth by the action of wind and water over time.
Vanessa is an award-winning ceramicist and has exhibited widely in Australia and Japan. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections.
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As a participant in the inaugural Melbourne Design Fair, Craft Victoria will present a curated collection of the most exciting makers in Australian craft and design. The exhibition will feature 13 makers working across ceramics, textiles, glass and metal, including textile artist Anastasia La Fey, ceramic artist Belle Thierry, textile artist Caro Pattle, ceramic artist Danielle Thiris, furniture and lighting designer Dean Toepfer, artist and experimental designer Jessie French, metalsmith Kenny Yong-Soo, multidisciplinary artist and weaver Lisa Waup, glass artist Misseu, ceramicist Owen Rye, ceramicist Vanessa Lucas, and ceramicist Yoko Ozawa.
Makers will come together in an immersive installation with emerging practitioners featured alongside established designers, showcasing creative ingenuity and material mastery.
Initiated by the NGV Department of Contemporary Design and Architecture and delivered in collaboration with the Melbourne Art Foundation, the fair is a new platform for the craft and design community to bring their collective creative energy together and sell one-off, limited edition pieces in a unique, cultural experience over five days.
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Materials: porcelain, glaze
Dimensions: approx. 23cm x 11cm x 11cm
Contact a Craft consultant shop@craft.org.au for more information or to commission a similar work