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Artist > Sarah Tracton

Media > Porcelain, Lighting

Sarah Tracton is a multidisciplinary artist that is building a reputation for using innovative slip on plaster slab techniques to create bespoke lighting that is functional, beautiful and mood-enhancing. Based in Melbourne, Sarah is a graduate of the National Art School in East Sydney, NSW. Sarah uses Australian-made porcelain clays for their distinctive translucent qualities to create her handcrafted artisanal pieces. When paired with LEDs, this material delivers iridescent, translucent and warm marbleised lighting. She also uses the Japanese-inspired gold leafing Kintsugi technique, in line with an ethos of circular economy. In combining traditional craft processes with new LED technologies, her lighting achieves innovations of cordless design, thus creating a streamlined visual aesthetic that is ideal for commercial and residential settings.

Each light is individually crafted with the addition of iridescent coloured stains that create marbled chromatic landscape panorama coloured surfaces akin to landscape topography.

Sarah’s labour-intensive construction process uses high quality, translucent Australian porcelain materials renowned for their whiteness and smooth surface. Each piece is individually handcrafted, forming its own unique markings and personality. The making process involves building architectural porcelain slabs from pouring liquid clay onto a plaster slab. The slip is then poured by layer onto the slab, then the sheets are peeled away. The lights fired twice – once at 1000 degrees and again at stoneware 1280 degrees. Between firings, the pieces are wet/dry sanded by hand to ensure smooth surface qualities.

Sarah has been a finalist for numerous awards, including VIVID Design + Decor, Interior Design Excellence Award (IDEA) and Craft Victoria Award. She won the Australian Association Prize Award for final year student at NAS and Peoples Choice at the Macquarie Group Emerging Artist Prize. In 2018, she held a solo exhibition ‘Hearing it for Silence’ at St Heliers Street Gallery at Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne.