Sandrine Ramona Nerrou

Atelier Douarn

Ceramicist

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Translucent porcelain

Sandrine uses a light technology to backlight her porcelain works
Communication between living beings is her source of inspiration
She likes to mix different craft techniques and materials

Sandrine Ramona is a self-taught ceramicist. She experiments with porcelain in its raw state, working on the fragility of clay. After a few years working as a communication officer, she committed herself to pottery; amazed by the possibilities that the earth could offer. Eager to learn, she engaged in experiences, attended lectures and researched the craft, establishing Douarn, her own workshop near Nantes in 2005. Plating, stamping, modelling, Sandrine likes to bring pottery where you wouldn’t expect it. From the infinitely small, she explores big dimensions. She works with porcelain in two ways: by playing on the cast shadows created by each porcelain piece or by backlighting the details of each porcelain piece, which underlines its translucency.

Interview

Why did you choose this craft?
To be able to learn constantly due to the variety of possible decorations with enamels, oxides, engobes; the types of firing; the many techniques, and the different types of clay. I can continue to experiment as my career progresses.
How would you define what you do?
It is a great chance to express myself through porcelain in the form of wall panels and frescoes. Working with ceramics creates a link between the past and present, tradition and modernity. My knowledge of clay and gestures connects me to ceramicists of past centuries; however, my ideas are part of the present.
What are your special skills?
I like that the infinitely small is revealed in large dimensions and the detail of each porcelain is important. I use a light plate technology with LEDs that allows me to backlight the porcelain. The decoration engraved on each piece of porcelain is thus revealed.
What do you like most about your profession?
The transformation of the material and the notion of time. In the workshop, time has another dimension. For the creation process, time is required to dream, observe, think, dare, try, miss, try again, sometimes to create slowly in order to strive for the excellence of what I can express with my partner, porcelain.

Sandrine Ramona Nerrou is a master artisan: she began her career in 2003 and she started teaching in 2006