Porcelain Bear

ANTHONY RAYMOND | GREGORY BONASERA Gregory’s passion for ceramics started early in his life, fostered by his parents when they replaced his much loved plastic toy potter’s wheel with a real one in 1975. Carrying this love for his craft into adulthood, Gregory has been practicing as a designer-maker since graduating from Monash University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Ceramic Design in 1988. His final year portfolio consisted of furniture, lighting and sculptural toy robots made from slip cast porcelain and painted with automotive and machine paints, steel and cast glass. Early in his professional career, Gregory was awarded a three month studio residency in Northern Italy in 1991 through the Australia Council’s Visual Arts Board. Throughout his 25-year career, Gregory has continued to hone his skills as a designer and artisan. Adding computer aided design (CAD) to his skill set in the late 1990s, Gregory now collaborates with industrial designer Anthony Raymond working under the banner of Porcelain Bear. An early adopter and local pioneer of CAD design in studio ceramics, Gregory’s work has been exhibited in Europe, the UK, the USA, Throughout Asia and locally. He is highly respected among his peers as a skilled designer, mould maker and craftsman. Anthony Raymond graduated with honours in 2003 from Monash University Industrial Design. While he was undertaking his degree, in 2002 he was invited to spend four weeks in Prado, Italy as one of nine students from his course being examined for suitability for an internship with superpower Japanese audio-visual company Kenwood. Anthony won the competition and the Tokyo internship. In 2003, prior to his graduation, Anthony’s sculptural couch concept was a finalist in Ikea’s Flat-pack furniture competition. Since graduating, Anthony has worked as a freelance graphic and web designer. In 2010, Anthony commenced his creative collaboration with Gregory Bonasera at Porcelain Bear as product designer production manager.