Smart ceramic lamps, embossed cups and saucers and sophisticated porcelain jewels painted manually are on display at the first one-artist exhibition of Zlata Zlatkova at Lampion Art Gallery in Sofia.

“The exhibition is dedicated to nature which has been an incessant source of inspiration for me. I adore nature, I adore observing it and I often find ideas for my art in it. In this particular case flowers are my dominant theme,” the young woman says presenting her exhibition Spring on the Threshold of Summer. She has a major in social pedagogy and psychology but ceramic art has become her passion.

“The moment I encountered clay there was the chemistry. It found me. I left my heart in it. Clay is a curious material – it is fascinating once you come to know about its specifics. It has character. Sometimes it doesn’t want to listen and sometimes it does. And at times its behavior depends on the mood of the artist.”

One of the first artefacts that Zlata made seven years ago was a small wall vase for dried flowers. Since then her talented fingers have beenmodelling diverse beautiful objects. The sets of cups and saucers though very beautiful are also functional and suitable for daily use.

“They are made of highly embossed porcelain and are then painted with the water-color technique directly on clay,” explains Zlata. “The effect is of a real flower resting on the saucer. This effect is rare, because very often in ceramics the opposite technique is used – a low relief hewn inside the object. Making high relief takes much longer time but it looks more realistic.”

The refined jewel pieces shown at the exhibition are also made of porcelain.

“Porcelain is different from clay, and is more tricky and harder to model.” Zlata Zlatkova explains. One has to work quickly and with precision with it as it dries very quickly. This requires a very good plan in the artist’s head. Often as I sit down to work with clay, I have no exact idea what I want to do, while with porcelain it is a lot different story. I have to have a clear idea not to waste time.”

After that porcelain is baked at high temperature – 1000 C, in a special furnace. On the baked material the image is painted and is covered with transparent glazing. “This is one of the finest points because the image would blur if you breathe heavily on it,” Zlata Zlatkova gets into the subtleties of the craft. “Therefore the porcelain is very tricky. It is challenging but there is a way to tackle its fussy character. Depending on the complexity of the painted image a bracelet takes 7 to 8 hours to make, and a pair of earrings – from 30 min. to 2 hours.”

Are there new ideas which Zlata Zlatkova has not yet made into artefacts?

“I am full of ideas but there is not enough time to carry them out. I would be happy if a day had 48 hours, as I would be able to work more. I hope that creativity in me lasts longer,” concludes the artist.

English Daniela Konstantinova

Photos: Dessislava Semkovska and Vladimir Kaludiev