The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
The use of ceramics for body protection is a relatively recent phenomenon. Since the 1960s, lightweight personnel and equipment armor has incorporated ceramics as a defense against small arms and machine gun fire. The ceramic component is bonded to metal, and, while the consequences of impact of a projectile don’t bear thinking about, research shows that ceramic is an effective barrier in military circumstances.
In another application, the American Ceramic Society reported in 2017 that Under Armour, the athletic clothing company, marketed pajamas made from fabric printed with ceramic particles. The company claimed that the ceramic component absorbed body heat and radiated it back, thereby soothing aching muscles while the wearer slept. The mostly anecdotal assertions were subsequently refuted and Under Armour’s website no longer lists ‘athletic recovery sleepwear’ with a price tag of $200.
It would be fair to say, therefore, that Shae Bishop’s ceramic clothing is unusual. Garments made of ceramics have no historic precedent although an aspect of Bishop’s apparel dates back to at least the third century AD. The Romans used lamellar armor, as did armies in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Lamellae are small plates of metal, leather, wood, horn, or bone that are tied together with leather in horizontal rows. In 2014, Russian archaeologists unearthed a 4000-year-old suit of lamellar armor made of elk bone, probably connected by sinew, similar to garments worn by Eskimos, Aleuts, and Tlingits.
While Bishop’s work has been explored in terms of fashion, wearable sculpture, and a textile/ceramic continuum, it is worthy of consideration as armor. Clothing protects the naked body against the climate, but it also protects—and projects—identity: the self-image that the wearer wishes to display. The notion of armor is present in Bishop’s ceramic garments in both literal and figurative senses.
Dressing in Clay
Bishop’s first clay garment, Coat, was made while he was a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute in 2011. Bishop was pursuing a double major in ceramics and art history and was interested in the history of dress, costume, and the material culture of body adornment. He read about dandyism, including the influence of Beau Brummell on British men’s fashion. He crafted clay tiles and laced them together with the intention of fabricating a patterned coat that explored the bespoke and the curation of self. The resulting garment, while somewhat crude and definitely reminiscent of lamellar armor, was a bold experiment. The patterning, achieved by hand-cut stencils, is noteworthy: “I laid out sections of tiles and dropped the posterboard stencils over top and stood above it and sprayed layers of blue and yellow underglaze.” The resulting tonal quality gives depth to the rigid surface and the overlaid historical motifs demonstrate familiarity with the grammar of ornament.
Coat was painstakingly made to fit Bishop’s body, to the degree that it wasn’t finished in time to exhibit alongside his colleagues’ work at the end-of-year show. But when completed, his intention to be photographed in the coat was fulfilled. The photo looks, and was, deliberately staged: “I decided to take my glasses off. I wanted to present it in a way that was trans-temporal, outside of time; eliminate any distractions or things that conveyed my everyday personality.
The precedent of a photo as the climax to each of Bishop’s clothing projects was established, yet unlike in what followed, the artist deliberately negated any sense of personal identity. Coat is a study in historical dress. And being “nervous about pigeon-holing myself or being a one-trick pony or becoming the ceramic clothes guy,” Bishop’s thesis work consisted of life-sized ceramic busts, comprised of solid and laced tile segments.
Protective Porcelain
Following graduation, Bishop spent two years at Red Star Studios in Kansas City, Missouri, then moved to North Carolina, where he was a studio assistant for Cristina Córdova. Concurrently, he took a break from ceramics to concentrate on textiles: weaving, fabric printing, pattern drafting, and designing/making his own clothes. With a better understanding of garment construction, he embarked on a porcelain shirt, which began with a paper pattern that fit his body dimensions. Bishop recalls, “I displayed the shirt on a mannequin that I made myself by creating a mold of my body and upholstering it so it would fit perfectly. The close fit, the working buttons, the fold-over collar attest to that year of immersion in functional clothes making.”
Shirt is indicative of a refinement of lacing technique and greater attention to the gradation of tile size and shape to contour shoulders and arms. But despite the shirt’s manufacture for its maker, the photo might have come from a Sears catalog. The garment has no specific attachment to Bishop, nor does it reflect an identity other than the artist’s capability of designing and producing a ceramic shirt, albeit one that fits like a glove! It took a residency at the Gaya Ceramic Arts Center in Bali, Indonesia, in 2019, to consolidate armor and identity.
Bishop is an enthusiastic amateur herpetologist. The trip to Bali allowed him to indulge his passion for snakes by exploring the tropical forest in search of reptiles. This endeavor was assisted by the construction of Shorts to Wear While Looking for Pythons. Here, the tiles are primarily press-molded hexagonals in earth tones that replicate the patterning of a reticulated python. About 1000 tiles were laced together with polythene thread to create a pair of shorts that are functional and comfortable. Bishop asserts, “When I put them on, they impart a feeling of transformation. The weight and slight clinking sound that the tiles make as I move makes my progress feel intentional and focused.” As an avowed snake lover, Bishop’s identity is embedded in Shorts; this clothing is symbolic of the hunter/warrior, and its construction in clay is literal and figurative protection against the environment and predators.
Similarly, A Swimsuit to Wear While Looking for Hellbenders, inspired by a return to North Carolina and proximity to aquatic giant salamanders in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a functional one-piece, early 20th-century, men’s swimming costume. Bishop’s suit is lined with wool, a practical consideration for cold-water exploration, and the unglazed irregular tiles—about 2000— gradate beautifully from ivory to ebony as they cascade down the torso. This wearable piece demonstrates a maturity of component linkage and aesthetics that warrants its being in the permanent collection of the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Swimsuit can be exhibited on a mannequin with a photo of Bishop in the swimsuit seeking hellbenders, yet its essence as protection and persona only occurs when on its maker.
Enriching the Wardrobe
Shorts and Swimsuit are political in the sense that the personal is political. Waistcoat of Earthly Delights, however, is more overtly political. Waistcoats for the upper classes were traditionally made in luxurious silks with metal threads and embroidered decoration. They were indicative of male wealth, status, and style and flaunted to indicate such. Bishop’s Waistcoat with sculpted clay snakes intertwined on a fabric background is in this vein; it might have been worn, as its photo implies, by a southern gentleman who owned a plantation and slaves. Today, the flowers and greenery, as well as the reptiles, represent loss of habitat and extinction of animal species. Bishop’s concern for climate change makes this an identity-imbued accessory at the same time as the splendid vest conveys a message about environmental protection.
The pièces de résistance in Shae Bishop’s ceramic wardrobe are his western wear: hats, a pair of chaps, and a bandana. In 2017, he did a summer residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana where he encountered his first rodeo. The bull riding and bronco busting, coupled with American cowboy culture observable during his trips in the southern and western states, provoked thinking about the items of clothing that are synonymous with the pervasive myth of machismo: belts with huge decorative buckles, tooled high-heeled boots, Stetson hats, flamboyant shirts, and leather chaps. These are the body protection/armor of the cowboy or rancher, as well as his or her identity.
Over subsequent years, Bishop reflected on ‘the contradictions that are inherent in historical and contemporary cowboy masculinity. Those mixed feelings and impulses are what got me interested in making work that explores Western wear cowboy identity.’ He began with hats of molded clay slip that weigh about two pounds and are readily worn for hours at a time. The range of styles includes fringed and painted with colorful cowboy memorabilia. The most labor-intensive piece amongst the cowboy clothing is a set of ceramic tile chaps attached to a white leather belt. Eternal Cowboy is a magnificent ensemble, including white leather boots, a white shirt with pearl snaps, a neckerchief, a fringed Stetson, and a horse. Equally amazing is Bandana—1600 triangular tiles that drape around the wearer’s neck, just as a cotton paisley bandana would.
Bishop is currently working on a functional ceramic diving helmet with which he will navigate underwater environments like Florida’s freshwater springs. The idea was developed during his residency at Kohler Arts/Industry in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 2024, where he used the factory’s resources to make ten ceramic helmet shells. During 2026, he will fit glass windows, lead weights, and air hoses to several helmets to satisfy his vision of being photographed while exploring aquatic conservation. Need I point out that a diving helmet is armor for non-oxygenated atmospheres?
Eternal Cowboy is a parody as well as a political statement. The outfit references country-and-western fashion, masculinity, and the negative consequences of American frontier ideals, including the genocide of Indigenous peoples and decimation of the prairie ecosystem. Alongside Shorts, Swimsuit, and Waistcoat it clearly informs the viewer of Shae Bishop’s identity, ethos, and material choice (in case of alien projectiles).
the author D Wood has a PhD in design studies and is an independent craft scholar whose artist profiles and exhibition reviews have appeared in an international roster of art and design publications. She is the editor of and contributor to Craft is Political (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The Politics of Global Craft (Bloomsbury, 2025).
1 Quotations by Shae Bishop come from a JRA Distinguished Artist Series presentation on October 21, 2025 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEm6-tDJcJg), and an interview with the author on November 26, 2025.
We understand your email address is private. You will receive emails and newsletters from Ceramic Arts Network. We will never share your information except as outlined in our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Please enjoy this complimentary article for the month.
For unlimited access to Ceramics Monthly premium content, please subscribe.
We understand your email address is private. You will receive emails and newsletters from Ceramic Arts Network. We will never share your information except as outlined in our privacy policy. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Subscribe to Ceramics Monthly
The audio file for this article was produced by the Ceramic Arts Network staff and not read by the author.
The use of ceramics for body protection is a relatively recent phenomenon. Since the 1960s, lightweight personnel and equipment armor has incorporated ceramics as a defense against small arms and machine gun fire. The ceramic component is bonded to metal, and, while the consequences of impact of a projectile don’t bear thinking about, research shows that ceramic is an effective barrier in military circumstances.
In another application, the American Ceramic Society reported in 2017 that Under Armour, the athletic clothing company, marketed pajamas made from fabric printed with ceramic particles. The company claimed that the ceramic component absorbed body heat and radiated it back, thereby soothing aching muscles while the wearer slept. The mostly anecdotal assertions were subsequently refuted and Under Armour’s website no longer lists ‘athletic recovery sleepwear’ with a price tag of $200.
It would be fair to say, therefore, that Shae Bishop’s ceramic clothing is unusual. Garments made of ceramics have no historic precedent although an aspect of Bishop’s apparel dates back to at least the third century AD. The Romans used lamellar armor, as did armies in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Lamellae are small plates of metal, leather, wood, horn, or bone that are tied together with leather in horizontal rows. In 2014, Russian archaeologists unearthed a 4000-year-old suit of lamellar armor made of elk bone, probably connected by sinew, similar to garments worn by Eskimos, Aleuts, and Tlingits.
While Bishop’s work has been explored in terms of fashion, wearable sculpture, and a textile/ceramic continuum, it is worthy of consideration as armor. Clothing protects the naked body against the climate, but it also protects—and projects—identity: the self-image that the wearer wishes to display. The notion of armor is present in Bishop’s ceramic garments in both literal and figurative senses.
Dressing in Clay
Bishop’s first clay garment, Coat, was made while he was a junior at the Kansas City Art Institute in 2011. Bishop was pursuing a double major in ceramics and art history and was interested in the history of dress, costume, and the material culture of body adornment. He read about dandyism, including the influence of Beau Brummell on British men’s fashion. He crafted clay tiles and laced them together with the intention of fabricating a patterned coat that explored the bespoke and the curation of self. The resulting garment, while somewhat crude and definitely reminiscent of lamellar armor, was a bold experiment. The patterning, achieved by hand-cut stencils, is noteworthy: “I laid out sections of tiles and dropped the posterboard stencils over top and stood above it and sprayed layers of blue and yellow underglaze.” The resulting tonal quality gives depth to the rigid surface and the overlaid historical motifs demonstrate familiarity with the grammar of ornament.
Coat was painstakingly made to fit Bishop’s body, to the degree that it wasn’t finished in time to exhibit alongside his colleagues’ work at the end-of-year show. But when completed, his intention to be photographed in the coat was fulfilled. The photo looks, and was, deliberately staged: “I decided to take my glasses off. I wanted to present it in a way that was trans-temporal, outside of time; eliminate any distractions or things that conveyed my everyday personality.
The precedent of a photo as the climax to each of Bishop’s clothing projects was established, yet unlike in what followed, the artist deliberately negated any sense of personal identity. Coat is a study in historical dress. And being “nervous about pigeon-holing myself or being a one-trick pony or becoming the ceramic clothes guy,” Bishop’s thesis work consisted of life-sized ceramic busts, comprised of solid and laced tile segments.
Protective Porcelain
Following graduation, Bishop spent two years at Red Star Studios in Kansas City, Missouri, then moved to North Carolina, where he was a studio assistant for Cristina Córdova. Concurrently, he took a break from ceramics to concentrate on textiles: weaving, fabric printing, pattern drafting, and designing/making his own clothes. With a better understanding of garment construction, he embarked on a porcelain shirt, which began with a paper pattern that fit his body dimensions. Bishop recalls, “I displayed the shirt on a mannequin that I made myself by creating a mold of my body and upholstering it so it would fit perfectly. The close fit, the working buttons, the fold-over collar attest to that year of immersion in functional clothes making.”
Shirt is indicative of a refinement of lacing technique and greater attention to the gradation of tile size and shape to contour shoulders and arms. But despite the shirt’s manufacture for its maker, the photo might have come from a Sears catalog. The garment has no specific attachment to Bishop, nor does it reflect an identity other than the artist’s capability of designing and producing a ceramic shirt, albeit one that fits like a glove! It took a residency at the Gaya Ceramic Arts Center in Bali, Indonesia, in 2019, to consolidate armor and identity.
Bishop is an enthusiastic amateur herpetologist. The trip to Bali allowed him to indulge his passion for snakes by exploring the tropical forest in search of reptiles. This endeavor was assisted by the construction of Shorts to Wear While Looking for Pythons. Here, the tiles are primarily press-molded hexagonals in earth tones that replicate the patterning of a reticulated python. About 1000 tiles were laced together with polythene thread to create a pair of shorts that are functional and comfortable. Bishop asserts, “When I put them on, they impart a feeling of transformation. The weight and slight clinking sound that the tiles make as I move makes my progress feel intentional and focused.” As an avowed snake lover, Bishop’s identity is embedded in Shorts; this clothing is symbolic of the hunter/warrior, and its construction in clay is literal and figurative protection against the environment and predators.
Similarly, A Swimsuit to Wear While Looking for Hellbenders, inspired by a return to North Carolina and proximity to aquatic giant salamanders in the Blue Ridge Mountains, is a functional one-piece, early 20th-century, men’s swimming costume. Bishop’s suit is lined with wool, a practical consideration for cold-water exploration, and the unglazed irregular tiles—about 2000— gradate beautifully from ivory to ebony as they cascade down the torso. This wearable piece demonstrates a maturity of component linkage and aesthetics that warrants its being in the permanent collection of the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Swimsuit can be exhibited on a mannequin with a photo of Bishop in the swimsuit seeking hellbenders, yet its essence as protection and persona only occurs when on its maker.
Enriching the Wardrobe
Shorts and Swimsuit are political in the sense that the personal is political. Waistcoat of Earthly Delights, however, is more overtly political. Waistcoats for the upper classes were traditionally made in luxurious silks with metal threads and embroidered decoration. They were indicative of male wealth, status, and style and flaunted to indicate such. Bishop’s Waistcoat with sculpted clay snakes intertwined on a fabric background is in this vein; it might have been worn, as its photo implies, by a southern gentleman who owned a plantation and slaves. Today, the flowers and greenery, as well as the reptiles, represent loss of habitat and extinction of animal species. Bishop’s concern for climate change makes this an identity-imbued accessory at the same time as the splendid vest conveys a message about environmental protection.
The pièces de résistance in Shae Bishop’s ceramic wardrobe are his western wear: hats, a pair of chaps, and a bandana. In 2017, he did a summer residency at the Archie Bray Foundation in Montana where he encountered his first rodeo. The bull riding and bronco busting, coupled with American cowboy culture observable during his trips in the southern and western states, provoked thinking about the items of clothing that are synonymous with the pervasive myth of machismo: belts with huge decorative buckles, tooled high-heeled boots, Stetson hats, flamboyant shirts, and leather chaps. These are the body protection/armor of the cowboy or rancher, as well as his or her identity.
Over subsequent years, Bishop reflected on ‘the contradictions that are inherent in historical and contemporary cowboy masculinity. Those mixed feelings and impulses are what got me interested in making work that explores Western wear cowboy identity.’ He began with hats of molded clay slip that weigh about two pounds and are readily worn for hours at a time. The range of styles includes fringed and painted with colorful cowboy memorabilia. The most labor-intensive piece amongst the cowboy clothing is a set of ceramic tile chaps attached to a white leather belt. Eternal Cowboy is a magnificent ensemble, including white leather boots, a white shirt with pearl snaps, a neckerchief, a fringed Stetson, and a horse. Equally amazing is Bandana—1600 triangular tiles that drape around the wearer’s neck, just as a cotton paisley bandana would.
Bishop is currently working on a functional ceramic diving helmet with which he will navigate underwater environments like Florida’s freshwater springs. The idea was developed during his residency at Kohler Arts/Industry in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 2024, where he used the factory’s resources to make ten ceramic helmet shells. During 2026, he will fit glass windows, lead weights, and air hoses to several helmets to satisfy his vision of being photographed while exploring aquatic conservation. Need I point out that a diving helmet is armor for non-oxygenated atmospheres?
Eternal Cowboy is a parody as well as a political statement. The outfit references country-and-western fashion, masculinity, and the negative consequences of American frontier ideals, including the genocide of Indigenous peoples and decimation of the prairie ecosystem. Alongside Shorts, Swimsuit, and Waistcoat it clearly informs the viewer of Shae Bishop’s identity, ethos, and material choice (in case of alien projectiles).
To learn more about Shae Bishop and his work, visit www.shaebishop.com or follow on Instagram @shae_bishop.
the author D Wood has a PhD in design studies and is an independent craft scholar whose artist profiles and exhibition reviews have appeared in an international roster of art and design publications. She is the editor of and contributor to Craft is Political (Bloomsbury, 2021) and The Politics of Global Craft (Bloomsbury, 2025).
1 Quotations by Shae Bishop come from a JRA Distinguished Artist Series presentation on October 21, 2025 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEm6-tDJcJg), and an interview with the author on November 26, 2025.
April 2026: Table of Contents
Must-Reads from Ceramics Monthly
Unfamiliar with any terms in this article? Browse our glossary of pottery terms!
Click the cover image to return to the Table of Contents