An amateur researcher of ancient Chinese ceramics and glazes, I am continuing to develop a number of glaze types using both traditional materials (such as porcelain stone and natural ashes) and modern materials. As a part of this research I created Glazy (https://glazy.org), a free platform for sharing and analyzing ceramics recipes. I’m a strong promoter of open-source software and the benefits it can bring to the ceramics community.
— Derek Au
Bio
Derek Au has 12 years experience as a professional studio ceramicist, 2 years experience managing a resident studio, and 2 years working for a large-scale ceramics production workshop and residency. Derek is experienced with all aspects of ceramics production: ceramic chemistry, clay & glaze formulation and preparation, traditional & modern fabrication processes, and maintenance and firing of a wide variety of kiln types and sizes.
In addition, Derek has 20 years of software development experience using a variety of programming languages in many different environments including 3D modeling and open-source development.
Mr. Au has experience living and working in a number of different countries and cultures. He is a native English speaker and intermediate-advanced Mandarin Chinese speaker.
In late 2017 Mr. Au was awarded a McKnight Resident Artist Award and invited to participate in the Expatriate Ceramics exhibition at the Northern Clay Center (NCC) in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After the NCC residency ended in March, Derek was accepted to Alfred University’s prestigious Ceramics program as a Special Student for the 2018-2019 school year. Recently, Derek was extremely honored to be accepted as a Red Lodge Clay Center Resident Artist for 2019-2020.