Me Old China is the ceramics brand founded by graphic designer turned sculptor Nick Dynan, and it’s taking the art world by storm.
Known for his tongue-in-cheek designs like “The Swear Jar,” a ceramic that tells you to “f*ck off,” to his highly sought-after bespoke vases, Me Old China merges Dynan’s love for typography as a graphic designer with his want to create physical things.
Me Old China has been making moves in the fashion world, as seen in a Three Stripes meets ceramics collab with adidas, and a commission for the runway with Casablanca for FW24, where models carried logoed vases as accessories.
Here’s how he created the “I Stole These Flowers For You” 30cm Bouquet Vase, from start to finish.
Step one
I start with painting the base colour, for this “I Stole These Flowers For You” 30cm Bouquet Vase I chose a light pink. I normally work with the white colour of the earthenware vases but I want to start to switch this up and introduce more colour palettes to what I do.
Step two
I use an old traditional signwriting technique of lightly tracing the letters onto the outside. This helps as a rough guide and also helps with working out the sizing and placement of each letter before I start to paint.
Step three
Whilst painting each letter I like to add a uniqueness to each one. I don’t want my pieces to look like a factory printed them. I want them to have a handmade look and style. For me this adds character and what I love. Each piece is completely unique. Even if they’re the same design they’ll still be different.
Step four
The final stage is dipping the vases in a clear glaze, and then they’re fired in my kiln at 1015’c. This takes about 8 hours to reach that temperature and then 8 hours to cool back down.
The best part of what I do is opening the kiln the next morning. Finally, seeing how my ideas have come to life is amazing and why I keep doing it every day.
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