Name: Laure-Anne Germond
Hometown:
Paris
Now living in: Shanghai
What inspired you to start French Dragon?
In 2008, I first felt in love with China’s incredible energy and the wild adventure that was calling me. After a first career as a branding expert, writing stories and imagining creative universes for my clients, I felt the urge to create beauty with my own hands, to bring to life my own dream universe.
I was in China, I was fascinated by China’s heritage arts and crafts, I believed deeply it was time for China to take back its place as an artistic leader on the international stage, as it was for centuries with, amongst other arts, its famous blue and white porcelains. And this got me inspired…
Who do you create your work for?
The brand invites you daydream in your Shanghai home and to adopt its ‘shūfū’ -comfortable- slow lifestyle, enjoying everyday small luxuries. This unique Chinese lifestyle is embodied by FRENCH DRAGON’s imaginary muse, JiaJia, painted on the brand’s plates and blue watercolors illustrations… A dreamy Chinese woman coming from the past to inspire our present.
FRENCH DRAGON is for all the JiaJia out there, Shanghai lovers and adventurers, the dreamers and doers, who love the fast pace of this crazy city, but also enjoy retreating in the comfort of their shūfū home.
What material do you use?
I work with Jingdezhen’s purest porcelain as a main material, known as ‘white gold’, painting it with the traditional cobalt blue. From this, I created the Shanghai-based brand ‘FRENCH DRAGON’, with the aim to revive the Chinese porcelain heritage for contemporary homes.
Where do you draw your inspiration?
I draw my core inspiration from China’s famous blue and white ceramics created for centuries under the Chinese dynasties. I am originally from Paris, so I wanted to infuse my creations with a French pure elegance. The designs are simple and chic, yet always carrying a hint of French ‘je ne sais quoi’! FRENCH DRAGON’s designs play with pīnyīn, English and French words, creating unique signatures on porcelains that will make you smile (… or laugh!).
How has Chinese culture shaped your work?
I first discovered Jingdezhen, China’s porcelain city in 2016. A city that bloomed under the most prestigious China’s dynasties, a well kept secret for centuries where pure magic happens everyday: clay from the earth is turned into the whitest most translucent porcelains, often called white gold.
Its huge pottery workshops set up in ancient abandoned ceramics factories, the new buzzling energy that now fills the city, the quiet of the surrounding nature. I loved it all. So much that I decided to make my ceramics there!
Just like that, Jingdezhen became a big part of French Dragon story. Every month I leave Shanghai, take the train and settle myself in a big bright ceramics studio amongst other passionate artists, on “Diaosu Cichang” lu.
Discover more of French Dragon
WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Instagram: @ frenchdragon
