Ceramics Monthly Articles (Simple)

  • Clay Culture: Ceramic Growlers
    The Portland Growler Company believes that beer growlers don’t have to be glass. In fact, they’ve created a line of ceramic growlers that have many benefits.
  • Clay Culture: Blurred Lines
    Sometimes, studying past technologies leads to remarkable discoveries that can help design better materials for the future. This uncommon science of archaeomimetics (the development of new technologie
  • Spotlight: Shifting Gears
    Matthew Groves primarily makes narrative figurative sculpture. For a recent collaborative show, he used his interest in narratives to create a series of vessels.
  • Tips and Tools: Stay-Put Glaze
    For those of us who don’t have a kiln in our studios, transporting glazed ware is a frustrating necessity. These tips will help keep your glaze from chipping or rubbing off before you can get the work
  • 2015 Residencies and Fellowships
    Need some seriously focused studio time? Need a creative jump start? Need a place to work and make connections? Need a change of scenery? Apply for a residency!
  • Techno File: Why Do Kilns Stall?
    Tired of staying up until the wee hours of the morning coaxing a stalling kiln to temperature? Learn why it happens, and how to fix it so you can get some sleep.
  • Universal Statuary: The Work of Matthew Groves
    History and universal themes inspire Groves’ narrative figure sculptures, which were on view at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, Illinois.
  • Exposure: January 2015
    Images from Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
  • From the Editor: January 2015
    Installing ceramic vessels or sculptures in an  exhibition space can be tricky. It’s something many of us deal with when showing work, so the editorial staff decided to focus this issue on a few diffe
  • Recipes for Salt and Soda Firings
    Want some slips and glazes that work well together in salt and soda firings? Try the ones below that Cathi Jefferson uses on her work.
  • Recipes: Cone 02 Crystal and Satin Matte Recipes
    These glazes provide wide variation in hue, translucency, and texture, depending on the thickness of application, the rate at which the kiln is cooled, and the additions of colorants.
  • Scaling it Down
    The size of a pot is often determined by what it’s intended use is, but subconsciously, maybe other factors are also involved—the size of your own body and the things you surround yourself with. Take
  • Monthly Method: Tile Molds with Flexible Dimensions
    Having an open-face plaster mold with flexible dimensions provides a lot of options when slip casting tiles. To make a mold like this, I cast a large flat plaster slab, as well as long thin plaster st
  • Cary Esser: A Vital Geometry
    Cary Esser has worked with tile since the 1970s, both in architectural settings and as freestanding sculptures. Her interest in the mass and physicality of clay is an important connecting thread throu
  • Movement and Tranquility: The Work of Cathi Jefferson
    For the past 40 years, Cathi Jefferson’s biggest influence has been her surroundings and a belief that nature connects us to what’s really important. Her functional and sculptural series of salt-and-s
  • James and Tilla Waters: Enigmatic Tableware
    Two painters who chose careers as potters work together to create functional tableware pieces that are minimal in form, and surfaces that investigate both bold and subtle color combinations.
  • Linda Sikora: Aesthetics and Agency
    Throughout her career Sikora has combined an interest in ceramic art history—from Tang Dynasty sancai ware to Syrian three-colored ware and 18th-century Wieldon wares—with a dedication to making highl
  • Studio Visit: Leslie-Ann Hoets, Sedgefield, South Africa
    Maintaining a ceramic business, a teaching workshop, and a personal studio can be very demanding. Doing it in the lush countryside of South Africa certainly makes the pressure easier to handle.
  • Clay Culture: Magnetic Clay
    Jólan van der Wiel creates gravity-defying sculptures made from clay powder mixed with metal fibers and water, and shaped using a strong magnet.
  • Clay Culture: Blood Swept Lands
    The Tower of London’s dry moat was recently flooded again, this time with 888,246 ceramic poppies. Check out Paul Cummins and Tom Piper’s epic installation commemorating those who served and perished