Tuesday 31 December 2013

"Think Pretty Pink And Blue Thoughts"



If I were writing a food blog I would give you the recipe for this pink salad dressing. Maybe I would write about my adventurous recipe testing and finally I would announce that I have the world’s best and prettiest salad dressing to share with you. You would probably comment that the pink dressing looks lovely in that blue bowl and that would be it. However, this blog is about ceramics so all the testing I did was about my blue ceramic glaze. And yes, it was adventurous testing.

I've been using this turquoise glaze on my ceramics for more than a decade. It functioned great when applied on stoneware. When I started to work with porcelain, I used the same glaze again because I was so sure that it would be brighter and more intense. I was right. When I decided to glaze the porcelain tableware with this glaze, I just had to test it first. That was a good idea because it turned out that this glaze is not stable on porcelain. I put vinegar in a turquoise glazed porcelain bowl and let it sit for a few days. A good glaze should change neither the colour nor the texture. Unfortunately this glaze failed the test. So from now on I will have to use it only on porcelain ware that isn’t used for serving food, like vases and soap dishes.

This small misfortune reminded me why I love porcelain in the first place: because of its whiteness and purity. I guess I should think pretty pink and blue thoughts and let my porcelain stay white.







Sunday 15 December 2013

Making Of




The idea for this video was born this summer during our holidays in Croatia. I told my brother Danijel that I would like a simple, funny but classy video including my new porcelain soap dish. So, my brother came up with some plans how to produce it. I loved them immediately. Few months later, Danijel came to visit my home in Switzerland for a weekend. He brought the camera and a huge collection of colourful soaps. 

This is how we did it: We used the trailer of my son’s wooden tractor to move the camera and to minimize the shaking. Isn’t it how professional film makers do it? 


Fortunately, our soapy leading actors had no airs and graces. They did their job very well. 





And finally we ate some delicious food during our creative breaks. 


Back in Vienna, Danijel put it all together and did all the cutting on his computer. 

You don’t need an expensive equipment to be creative. We had the most of the fun when we had to improvise during the process, especially when we used my son’s toy to move the camera. I think our low budget production is nothing to sneeze at. 


Thursday 5 December 2013

Soap, Soap Dish, Soap Opera...


My brother came to visit us a few weeks ago. Last time we saw us, we did some brainstorming about filming a funny video that would include my turquoise soap dish. This is the result: