Her love for moulding mud continued with her throughout her years. She continued to study pottery, attaining a Bachelor of Design Arts at Australian National University in 2011. Over the years, she has exhibited her work in various local and international ceramic shows, given TED talks on Ceramics in Singapore, and have been invited to be a guest lecturer at various Art and Design schools around Singapore.

For her, starting Mud Rock was natural. She explains that after the festival ended, she received various commissions which were opportunities that had convinced her to leave her lecturing position at Singapore Polytechnic at a design school.

While Lim has been familiar with pottery almost all her life, Seok’s pottery journey began when she first touched clay while living in Tokyo, Japan while she was working in the foreign exchange market. When she returned to Singapore seven years later, she took a leap of faith leaving the banking industry to develop her skills in ceramic making.

Back in Singapore, she continued training intensively with local potter Jacqueline Low before taking on an apprenticeship under the guidance of renowned Thai master Somluk Pantiboon.

The duo explained that as they learned more about the industry and how wide the field was, they realised how much the industry had to offer.

Coming together

At Lim’s Awaken the Dragon festival, the duo discovered their mutual love of making functional wares. But, they also realised the craft was not fully appreciate din Singapore. “If we can’t appreciate the beauty and craft behind a cup we use and hold to our lips daily, how can we understand fine art cases in museums,” the duo explains. They wanted to show others a connection between ceramics as a “functional utility” and an “artistic object”.

In 2013, they started Mud Rock Ceramics with a dream of filling homes in Singapore with locally handmade ceramics. Over the years, the studio has cultivated a thriving community. They share that the community “doesn’t just look at ceramics as stagnant objects but as a practice that fulfils us and crosses boundaries”.

When they first began Mud Rock Ceramics, the duo shared that they did not have any work-life balance, especially since they lived above their first studio. “We didn’t draw work-life balance boundaries, had no days off and there was always a fear of what losing a day of work could mean,” Lim and Ng explain.

They have since learnt to manage their time, allowing themselves to take time off from work and not discuss anything work-related. Lim also adopted a studio dog, Buddy, to help her and Ng destress.

Of course, starting a business is not always smooth sailing and this is especially so in the ceramics industry. The duo shares how there are “endless failures” when it comes to their practice—there is a failure rate that is calculated with every firing of a ceramic piece. However, they see failure as a lesson and reflection of learning each day.

Today, we can find Mud Rock’s products featured in multiple renowned establishments, like Meta, Le Bon Funk and The Warehouse Hotel. On top of that, they have also commissioned gifts for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’s VVIPs including a tea set for Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday—one of their proudest achievements to date.

Looking ahead

10 years on, the duo has not stopped expanding the ceramics community in Singapore, constantly lifting it to new heights with various experiences and workshops like Clay Camp. The latest five-day camp focuses on community building and fostering appreciation for the art.

While they can’t predict what the future holds for them, the duo continues to hope for more people to “support local ceramic artists, for makers and artists to have more autonomy and eventually for the ceramics industry to rise to a blooming and creative renaissance”.

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