Form Through Making

1. Intro

Developed through extended, hands-on work at the Ceramics Centre in Dubí, in direct collaboration with Český porcelán Dubí.

I worked inside a porcelain production facility over several months, moving between sculpting, mold-making, casting, firing, and finishing. The focus was understanding how design decisions hold up once material, tooling, and production constraints enter the picture.

Two objects resulted: one addressing use, ergonomics, and touch; the other exploring surface, meaning, and cultural reference.

2. Porcelain massager

The massager treats porcelain as functional material rather than decorative. Its smooth, hygienic surface and thermal retention allow it to be warmed or cooled, making temperature part of the interaction.

The handle was shaped by hand in clay, refined through repeated ergonomic testing. The massage nubs required different approach: digital design for controlled spacing and pressure distribution, then 3D printing for precision.

Production required a hybrid mold system: multi-part plaster molds to capture the handle’s organic form, and flexible molds to enable clean extraction of the nubs. The result combines hand-shaped variation with consistent, repeatable elements.

3. Rice porcelain

This series reinterprets “rice porcelain” through literal application. I boiled rice, used indivdual grains to create molds, cast them in porcelain, fired them, and attached them to plates and bowls as surface detail.

Food remnants, usually temporary and visually disregarded, become the decorative element. The work operates between functional tableware and conceptual object, using repetition and material irony to question what we consider acceptable or valuable.

The forms were shaped using plaster on the wheel, then molded, cast, and fired. Three graduated sizes, each with structural supports on the underside responding to scale and weight.

3. What carries over