Melanie Sherman’s interest in clay and porcelain was a slow-burning passion stemming from her worldly travels and historical interests. The local ceramist was born in Germany and spent her youth visiting cities around Europe.
“When I got into ceramics, I was especially interested in the history of porcelain and how porcelain travels, like how it got from China to Europe hundreds of years ago,” she says.
Through her schooling at the Kansas City Art Institute, Sherman traveled to Japan and China—specifically the Chinese city of Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of the world. “Their streetlights are made of porcelain,” she says. “It’s amazing.”
Sherman’s ceramics portfolio ranges from antiquated wares like tea bowls to stunning handcrafted earrings and necklaces. Her pieces are thrown on a wheel or cast in a plaster mold, fired in an electric kiln and then hand-painted using techniques she studied in Hungary. To shop her collections, visit melaniesherman.com or Cerbera Gallery, 2011 Baltimore Ave., KCMO.
