093 - Dolly Springs Eternal by Camille Morin

This handmade porcelain Dolly mug is my one-of-a-kind "weird" art tribute to our most celebrated country songstress. I've been making Dolly tribute mugs for some time and I even worked at Dollywood making pottery long ago in the days of my ceramics degree at University of Tennessee. I see Dolly as an icon we can all worship without reservation. The nature of my printmaking process embeds a stain-based ink onto the clay surface before any firings. This means sometimes the glaze can "pull" the stain in interesting ways, resulting in an ephemeral quality to the images. Dolly here is trapped in time and rendered with a subtlety belying her superstar status, softened by the glaze.  

--

Ceramic artist Camille Morin has worked in clay since 1990 and has her BFA in Ceramics from the University of Tennessee.
She launched as “Belle Epoque Studio” in 2013 to highlight her love of all things nostalgic and her French roots. 
She has been a full time potter since 2019 and a Southern Highland Craft Guild member since 2024.

Camille incorporates nostalgic images into her work through the use of a lithographic transfer method onto porcelain. Images are inked repeatedly, then burnished onto the clay surface prior to firing. Wheel-thrown, hand built, and slipcast forms are finished with an art nouveau-inspired palette of patterns and original glazes. Many forms are fired a third time for embellishment with metallic lusters and vintage decals to create work that bridges the distance between past and present.

Handmade work reconnects the user to our earth by coupling rituals of eating and drinking to a more soulful, less-manufactured object. Camille believes special objects make every day more memorable and meaningful.