Growing decoration

Growing decoration
When I am designing often I start with a material or technique. I go into the workshop and make the technique or material my own by experimenting. For this project I decided to cast porcelain, a common technique. By casting a lot of different shaped products I soon learnt that you use a plaster mould to poor in the porcelain so a wall-thickness appears. When you know how something works, you also know how it does not work. I took advantage of that by casting a lampshade in the regular way but by forcing the technique to not work in certain places, so the wall of porcelain will get thinner there. When you turn on the light it will shine through the porcelain lightshade at those places. The shape of this thinner piece is a decoration that I have drawn in the computer beforehand. Normally a porcelain piece is decorated afterwards by painting or perforating it. The lamp “growing decoration” has already been decorated during the casting. The result is a 'natural design', as the decoration is completely integrated in the production process. It seems like the decoration has grown into the porcelain.
