Ceramics Monthly Articles (Simple)

Have you ever considered making plates using slip-casting techniques? Artist and master moldmaker Daniel Mehlman explains different techniques, as well as the method he’s chosen for making his own plates.

Through realistic imagery rendered in exacting, pointillist style on vessels and sculptures, Juan Barroso humanizes the contemporary immigrant experience and foregrounds immigrant contributions to society and culture.

Tactility plays a key role in Guillermo Guardia’s creative drive.

This past year, Katie Cameron took advantage of the extra time she had on her hands by creating clay kits for her community, where a set fee gave participants a bag of clay, some tools, and access to firings.

With in-person classes put on hold due to the pandemic, Erin Furimsky came up with a way to engage her community and provide a creative outlet through projects designed to fit into a standard pizza box and related video demonstrations streamed online.

Tony Natsoulas channels his boundless energy, optimism, and love of both art and pop culture into his large-scale figurative ceramic portraits of iconic people.

Exploring her personal experience and Caddo Nation heritage in monumental coil-built figurative sculptures, Raven Halfmoon is simultaneously expanding and continuing contemporary Caddo culture.

The colorful, expressive figures that Janina Myronova makes reflect her Ukrainian and Russian background, as well as her interest in pre-Columbian figurative sculpture and contemporary graphic novels.

Kazu and Yuka Oba create tableware and sculpture for their business, O’baware, in the studio attached to their home. The space blends indoor and outdoor work areas that make the most of the sunny, semi-arid climate along the Rocky Mountain foothills.

Images from Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

I went home and filled several tube socks with grog and began using them in a similar way—to push, stretch, and prod soft slabs of clay into forms.

The articles in this issue demonstrate how the artists developed a self awareness, then used this knowledge to focus on subjects of importance to them, while creating narratives that invite the viewer’s participation.

With thoughtful attachment and blending, handles made with a loop tool can be consistent and reliable.

These recipes are staples in the studio practice of production potter Mark Cortright. Each is suitable for firing in gas a kiln with a high temperature and reduction atmosphere.

Discover how silver and gold readily form nanoparticles during reduction firings (and gold in oxidation firings at mid range) that can be suspended in glazes to create unique colors.

Find venues that showcase ceramic art in our annual Gallery Guide listing.

Why do we associate pottery forms with the human form? Are these parallels culturally specific or more universal? YoonJee Kwak’s exploration of these questions comes from a common Korean metaphor that compares a person’s character to a vessel’s form.

Have you been tempted but too intimidated to stack pots on top of one another in a bisque firing to save space and energy or to fit in those last few pieces for an order or exhibition?

Artists Pedro Centeno, Tim Kowalczyk, Andrew Massey, and Tim See all look to industrial objects including cardboard, chains, oil cans, pipes, paint rollers, and machine parts for aesthetic inspiration.

Thoughtful observation of her surroundings both natural and decorative translates into the rich, layered patterns and visual textures in the captivating work of Frances Priest.