Luminous Clay

Working with Bone China and Porcelain Paperclay

Angela Mellor

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Herbert Press Ltd
30 September 2025

Ceramics: artworks; Ceramics & glass technology; Antiques & collectables: ceramics & glass; Pottery, ceramics & glass crafts

Series: New Ceramics

A contemporary guide to creating beautiful, translucent ceramics.

Porcelain and bone china are known and prized for their fineness, delicacy, and translucence, but can be difficult to use and pose particular problems for the potters and ceramic artists using it.

In Luminous Clay, bone china expert Angela Mellor aims to demystify these clays, encouraging more ceramists to explore these exciting mediums. The book explains a new way of working with bone china, a clay body created by the addition of bone ash to porcelain. With the introduction of paper pulp the clay is transformed, allowing freedom of expression through hand-building that was previously impossible and allowing the potter to take full advantage of its whiteness and translucency. Gorgeous photography throughout demonstrates how ceramicists around the world are able to create extraordinary pieces that ripple and bend light.

Mellor covers the main methods of working with bone china, including mould-making and slipcasting, along with techniques that have allowed her to play with the transparency and surface of clay. Decorating methods, firing procedures and electrical lighting to maximise translucency are also explored along with stunning images and methods used by other ceramists.

By: Angela Mellor
Imprint: Herbert Press Ltd
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 244mm, Width: 188mm, Spine: 14mm
Weight: 620g
ISBN: 9781789943894
ISBN 10: 1789943892
Series: New Ceramics
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 30 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Angela Mellor started working in bone china in 1991. Moving to Australia in 1995, she conducted research at the University of Tasmania, Hobart, and completed an MA at Monash University, Melbourne in 2000. During this time she pioneered the use of bone china paperclay, gaining honourable mentions in Japan and Korea. Angela set up a studio in Perth in 2000 and was awarded a Crafts Council Grant to work with a lighting designer, culminating in a solo exhibition at Craftwest. She returned to the UK in 2006 to work in her studio in Cambridgeshire.