In 2000 I stumbled upon the work of Dutch artist Hella Jongerius in a magazine. At the time I had recently started teaching myself to work with clay and was stuck in a very commercial and static mindset. Her embroidered porcelain dishware definitely gave me a moment of “joyous jealousy”. Jongerius takes a historically functional craft and pushes the limits. She doesn’t stop at merely embroidering her dishes but continues her thread work from the dish directly onto the tablecloth. - See more at: http://hellocraft.com/2009/01/embroidered-porcelain/#sthash.uLeYfEHN.dpuf