Michele Humphrey

“It started with a bamboo skewer and scratch board in third grade art class. That was Michele’s introduction to sgraffito. Later in life she would transfer this technique onto porcelain.

The porcelain takes many forms, but all those forms end up etched with images of nature. Three dimensional pieces start on a pottery wheel with some being altered further by hand. Once the porcelain reaches a dryness of “leather hard”, it is coated with black underglaze. At that point the etching can begin. Michele uses a special tool she made out of necessity. There weren’t any tools precise enough to create the visions she had in her mind. The tree that inspires many of her drawings also provides a part of the tool she uses to do the sgraffito. The tool she uses is made up of a stick and a sewing needle.