Dorothy Feibleman

Dorothy Feibleman taught classes of translucent porcelain nerikomi (laminated clay) at a workshop held at the Ichinokura Sakazuki Museum Art Studio in the city of Tajimi City, Gifu Prefecture in 2007. In 1997 and 1999, she stayed as a guest artist at Togei no Mori in Shigaraki prefecture Shigaraki, and made works at the same workshop. She also gave a lecture at Togei no Mori (Pottery in the Woods) in 1997 about her colored work and white/white translucent textured and not textured work. She also lectured in Shigaraki Ceramic Technology Test Site in 1998 about her white/white translucent nerikomi she developed in 1995 in the UK and Hungary . In this blog she will show and introduce the method of making the laminated millefiori porcelain she has used for the past 49 years until now. She has never been secretive about how she fires and has fired mainly unglazed porcelain in silica sand in saggars or forms she makes or on setters. Firing in sand is not a secret Japanese technique.It is a method she has been using since 1975 when she discontinued using glaze as a usual finish. Dorothy's expression of translucent white/white nerikomi porcelain was never in Japanese history until she gave these lectures and started studios in Japan. Translucent nerikomi has no Japanese history until she took it to Japan from Europe in her suitcase. She developed it further in England and Japan at the same time because she was in Japan and able to have access to different materials than in the UK. She was using her using her methods to make work before she was aware of there being Chinese pictographs and Japanese Kanji to describe a similar method to how she works. She does not use a secret Japanese technique to create amazing porcelain ceramics. She developed it herself because she saw glass beads in the Berger Bead Museum in Los Angeles in 1967 and desired them. She was inspired by Italian glass beads but was working in clay in 1969 and figured how to make similar imaging in clay. In 1969, there were probably few books on glass techniques so she figured out how to make images in clay that were similar to making images in glass without knowing how to do it in glass. Her translucent nerikomi porcelain work first appeared in Japan at the first Mino Competition in 1986.