Meet Naomi Taplin, the ceramicist illuminating porcelain’s potential

Naomi Taplin’s introduction to the world of ceramics was in the early ’90s, growing up in Mothar Mountain, just outside of Gympie in regional Queensland, where her mum had a pottery business. Days were spent watching her craft terracotta bird baths and other objects to take to the markets.

“That’s how I grew up for a long time. That’s what we did. I began a fine arts degree after high school, but then started a finance degree before changing to law and journalism,” she shares.

After years abroad, and always feeling the pull to create, Naomi reconnected with ceramics through a multidisciplinary design degree, majoring in ceramics and object design.

“I’d always loved ceramics and I did quite a bit of it when I was younger, but it took me a while to find my way back to it.”

Through this course, she rediscovered the tactile satisfaction of making, learning slip-casting and production techniques, with porcelain quickly becoming her medium of choice.

Studio Enti is the design practice of Naomi Taplin, producing handmade ceramic tableware, lighting and home decor in Sydney, Australia.

The Studio Enti colour palette is based on a refined selection of hues, playing with gentle gradients and tones.

Founding Studio Enti in 2013 in Sydney, Naomi’s first collections were focused on handmade tableware, a natural extension of her years spent working in hospitality and her interest in design that serves both beauty and function.

A difficult medium to work with, porcelain is fragile, yet strong after it has been fired. With a high silica content, it can warp, crack and distort under heat. Yet it’s these qualities that make it perfect for Studio Enti.

“Porcelain has that balance I love. It’s refined, but it’s also incredibly durable, and that’s what drew me in,” says Naomi. “It shrinks up to 15 per cent, much more than other clay bodies. It’s the highest shrinkage rate, which makes it a really tricky material to work with, but that’s what makes it so special.”

Each unique piece of handmade porcelain is made to be used and enjoyed. A strong belief in the necessity of good design, the principles of longevity and sustainability are the major driving forces behind the work of Studio Enti.

A balance between utility and artistry, the handmade tableware proved popular with local restaurants and designers, with the same idea of form and function eventually leading to the development of porcelain lighting.

“My passion was really about bringing the sculptural side of lighting, and the ambient side of what lighting can do, into my products. It took quite a long time, but a few years ago, I made the switch to focusing on developing a lighting range. I used a lot of the same forms that I’d created for tableware, turning them into lighting. It was a big journey learning all the componentry and the electronics of lighting, as well as all the certification that comes with it.”

Working with porcelain for lighting also revealed different qualities of the material; in particular, its translucent quality that allows light to pass through, giving each piece its distinctive warmth and softness.

“Being able to have that raw surface is just so beautiful. I don’t glaze most of the porcelain for the lighting. We sand it back so it’s smooth, durable and easy to live with. It’s perfect for lighting because of that translucency; it lets the light glow from within.”

Founded in Sydney in 2013, Studio Enti began with handmade porcelain tableware before designing and crafting porcelain lighting.

Hand-carved, the pendants are made from Australian porcelain.

Everything by Studio Enti is crafted in-house by a small team of makers, from pouring to wiring and assembly. This hands-on approach means Naomi and her team know each design inside out, evolving each detail slowly, with care.

“We’ve been able to agonise over details and work through different prototypes to get things exactly how we want them. It’s really nice doing everything under one roof. We can adjust things based on feedback, refine as we go and keep the integrity of the design process intact,” she says. “You learn over time what shapes will work, what shapes won’t, what boundaries you can push and what’s just not worth doing. In the beginning, people tell you not to do something and you try it anyway. You might fail, but that’s how you learn where the limits are.”

A small team of talented makers bring each piece to life, often made to order.

In Naomi’s work, porcelain’s unpredictable nature is evidence of the process; the trace of a human hand in an otherwise exacting process. Every ripple and variation is a record of the maker’s touch.

“There’s a beautiful story in porcelain,” she says. “It’s different to other materials and it’s hard to work with, but those challenges drive the pieces we make. They give the lighting its personality and warmth. Those subtle variations in the way the light moves differently across the surface, or a swirl of colour, are what make it special.”

Photography by Georges Antoni, Ainsley Johnstone, Merena Nguyen, and Natasha Lorenzen.