Wonki & J

Kim and Jaeha Lee of Wonki And J Ceramics. Focusing their practice on the revived Buncheong tradition of their Korean homeland, Wonki and Jaeha create the most sublime homewares in a variety of functional and decorative forms in their single gloss white palette.

The Buncheong style, once forgotten but now beloved again, is characterised by deep dark iron-rich clay bodies and pure white slip-covered surfaces, allowing the chocolate coloured clay to show through the snowy white covering in varying degrees, creating gorgeous tonal shifts without the additions of colourants. Wonki and Jaeha finish their wares in a practical and hardwearing gloss glaze ensuring the highest useability in the modern kitchen.

In a blending of worlds, Wonki and Jaeha incorporate wild-soured Victorian clays into their wares, honouring their new home country with the traditions of their homeland, creating a truly unique Korean-Australian hybrid, stitching themselves into the rich Australian tapestry. Whether it be simple and versatile tableware, such as wide open-faced dishes, high-sided bowls, traditional mugs and tea bowls or sumptuous decorative pieces such as moon jars and vases, the palette unites the entire collection. Like a high contrast black and white photo, edges are sharply defined as the bone-white slip breaks over rims. Brilliant white patches the result of thick application reflect light so bright it mesmerises. We are reminded of the moon's face as we gaze heavenward, a ghostly apparition, a pail of milk spilled across an earthen floor, a bowl of speckled cookie ice cream.