TAUGHT by experts, Lorraine Lucey now beats the Brits at their own game, writes SARAH HUDSON

Royal Worcester, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton - to any connoisseur of fine-bone china these are names synonymous with all that is great and glorious about Britannia.

Alas, no longer.

Once the behemoths of British industry, epitomising quality design and production, they have been variously sold to overseas buyers or are now mass-produced in Asia.

So it comes as quite a surprise to find one of the world's best bone-china producers and painters on a 130ha sheep farm at Mt Lonarch, on the grassy plains between Beaufort and Avoca.

Not only was Lorraine Lucey taught by the best Brits in the business, she is now beating them at their own game, making everything from vases to ornaments and then painting them by hand - often in English designs - using centuries-old traditions.

At her Mt Lonarch Studio, the 68-year-old steadfastly defies the trend for the cheap and mass-produced, instead spending three months or longer to make a single piece of bone china, with no two pieces the same.

"I always do things the hard way," says Lorraine, in her trademark cheerful manner.

"We can't, and don't, try to compete with mass-produced. We are keeping the old tradition alive and isn't it wonderful that we're doing it in Australia."

Lorraine has been finessing the art of painting bone china since the early 1970s, introduced to it by her mother-in-law, and taught by some of the best ceramic painters in Australia and around the world.

For about 20 years she ran a Ballarat shop that sold her sought-after work, taught ceramic painting around Victoria and opened the Mt Lonarch Studio in 1980.

But it was when she won a Churchill Fellowship in 1990 that her skills took flight.

She spent three months in the UK learning how to make bone china - much of that time at Royal Worcester, nine years before the business finished trading in its original format.

"I'm still surprised by the help and reception Royal Worcester gave me, and what they gave me access to," says Lorraine, who as a young woman was a food science teacher and an exceptional cake decorator.

"They took me to their colour lab, opened their recipe books, I had a one-on-one with their senior caster and they put me in with their painters, who normally jealously guard their skills.

"It was mind-boggling."

Her mind buzzing with new ideas, she came home and developed her gallery - at that point devoted purely to her ceramic painting - into a fully blown production line, which is now open to the public.

So popular did her creations become that her husband, Peter, is now in charge of making the pots, a painstaking and labour-intensive process.

That process begins with the bone china clay - consisting of half clay and half bone ash, imported from the UK, which is poured as a thick, creamy liquid into plaster moulds.

Peter has made about 100 different moulds - vases, urns, pots, mementoes, ornaments - in themselves requiring a long production line.

Once the liquid clay is poured in, the moulds suck the moisture out, leaving a thick outer layer and allowing the internal, excess residue to be poured out.

The remaining shells are then left to dry naturally for three weeks before being fired in the electric, computer-controlled kiln for about 36 hours.

They are glazed and re-fired before painting begins.

Depending on the colours used, detail, accents, shadows, lustre and decorations applied, an item can be re-fired as many as 12 times.

Lorraine works with another painter, displaying an individual style, to produce flowers, animals (including Lorraine's favourite Highland cattle and sheep), fruit, contemporary Australian flora and even English landscapes of thatched cottages and abbey ruins.

"A piece can take at least three months from beginning to end," says Lorraine, who teaches painting in Ballarat, Stawell and at Mt Lonarch.

"Bone china is different to porcelain or clay used on a pottery wheel ... it's much harder to make.

"Before it is finished, bone china cracks readily and during the process can collapse. Once finished, though, it is far more durable and tougher than other ceramics."

With such dedication and patience, the price range - from $45 to $4000 - seems small.

"We have people who come into the studio and say 'Is this just about china painting?', while others say 'This is dear' and then those who say 'This is cheap'.

"We had a couple of Germans come recently who said you couldn't buy hand-designed bone china in Germany for less than $1000 and so could not believe how low our prices were.

"If we counted our hours we wouldn't make any money."

So why do it?

"It's rewarding working with colours and it's nice to be able to do something few other people are doing, particularly when you consider most of the traditional, British bone-china producers have been sold off."