LAURA DE BENDETTI

Porcelain Bowls

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The career of Laura De Benedetti spans 20 years of ceramic art.  Qualified originally as a professional pharmaceutical chemist, Laura engaged with ceramics when her first child was born.  Studying initially the pottery traditions of Piedmont in North Italy under a professional from Castellamonte, she took her second degree in Ceramic Art in the celebrated faculty of Media, Art and Design at the University of Westminster ( Harrow course)  graduating in 2007. 

Laura’s work is inspired by the vibrant, subtle colours of the Italian coastline in Liguria where she grew up.  The sea and the sky, the sand and the rock, the flashes of colour from cliff-top wild flowers and the mysterious shades of dawn and sunset are reflected in her unique iridescent and crystalline glazes. 

In a period when so much ceramic art is abstract and conceptual, Laura has focused her art on the useful, practical objects that accompany us in our daily lives.  She believes that pots are meaningful when they are put to use, so that their decorative and artistic qualities illuminate and accompany us, making the routine a little special.  Bowls, plates, cups, mugs, jugs and teapots fulfill their functions, each similar, none the same.  Tough, dishwasher-proof works of art for everyday use. 

All the pieces are thrown on the wheel in porcelain and after the first bisc firing, glazed with  many layers of different glazes and then re-fired at 1280 °C. 

Laura has created are a unique double mixture combining traces of alumina to make them flow and pool with zinc oxide to make them flower with tiny crystals.  As they cool, they shrink at a different rate to the underlying porcelain, an extraordinarily tough, durable ceramic.  A network of tiny cracks and fissures can develop in the glaze, like the frozen flaws in glacier ice.  They add a three dimensional depth to the piece, without affecting the hygiene and durability of her work.