Ceramics Monthly Articles (Simple)

  • Masa Sasaki: Shifting Form and Holding Wonder
    Alien imagery, symbols, and numbers adorn the surfaces of potter Masa Sasaki’s distinct vessels. Layered with influence pulled from music, personal experience as an immigrant, and philosophies on happiness, his ceramic pots embody curiosity.
  • Jeff Shapiro: Quiet Influences of Nature and Material
    Jeff Shapiro’s new sculptural work builds on his long-held interest in finding beauty in nature (including its imperfections), observing his surroundings to make new discoveries, and researching and understanding the essence of objects.
  • George Metropoulos McCauley: Mistakes Make the Magic
    George Metropoulos builds characters and bodies of work in a uniquely immersive fashion. Loosely constructed and often decorated with Redneck Majolica, his vessels and sculptures are eccentric, inventive, and earnest.
  • Clay Culture: Proteomics and Pots
    Analysis of residues sampled from ancient vessels can reveal information on the proteins, and therefore the diets, diseases, and species contemporary to their users.
  • Clay Culture:  Finding a Balance
    Potter Abby Reczek moved to Floyd, Virginia, for an apprenticeship, and decided to stay. When the opportunity arose to co-own a gallery business in town, she worked hard to make it happen.
  • Clay Culture: Ceramic Swallows of Portugal
    Swallows have special meaning in Portuguese culture, and ceramic silhouettes of these distinctive birds can be found on the walls of many homes and businesses.
  • Clay Culture: Moving Queen City Clay
    The pandemic gave the owners of Queen City Clay a chance to reassess their current and future facility needs. They share the process of re-imagining and then reconstructing their business in a new, expansive space.
  • Exposure: February 2022
    Images from Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
  • Quick Tip: Resourceful Chucks for Trimming
    During the COVID-19 lockdown, I decided to learn how to make pottery and, as a newbie, came across a problem when I threw a little vase on my wheel that had a smaller rim than its base.
  • From the Editor: February 2022
    What is your vision of a career in clay? In this issue, we bring together several articles focused on artists who have taken interesting approaches to building a creative life.
  • Recipes: High-Fire Glazes
    The cone-10 glazes below are staples in the Queen City Clay studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. They create rich surfaces when used both on their own and layered in specific combinations.
  • Studio Visit: LULA Pottery, Portland, Oregon
    Carisa Miller’s career switch to pottery happened in quick order, and one result is her backyard studio. The space was designed methodically so that every tool and piece of equipment has its place.
  • Spotlight: Layers of Depth
    Detail and a chance for reflection draw potter Samantha Hostert into a pot, and also inspire the layers of surface and content designed into her soda-fired forms.
  • Call for Entries: January 2022
    Deadlines for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals.
  • From the Editor: January 2022
    Atmospheric firing gives artists an opportunity to achieve unrepeatable results and add layers of visual information to their work.
  • 2022 Residencies and Fellowships
    This annual guide lists opportunities in alphabetical order by US state, then by country. To ensure complete under- standing of application requirements and what the experience entails, please contact the individual sponsor.
  • Recipes: Reduction Ready
    Minsoo Yuh uses these slip and glaze recipes to develop the surfaces of her functional pots. She fires her work to cone 10 in reduction in a gas kiln.
  • Tips and Tools: Clay Gradients
    This simple method of portioning and blending segments of colored clay results in a smooth gradation from one color to the next.
  • Techno File: From Clay to Ceramic
    Learn the science behind the changes that occur in the kiln to solidify clay into ceramic.
  • 8 Hopper-Pumper, 22 in. (56 cm) in length, terra cotta, slip, engobe, glaze, 2018.
    Jessica Brandl: Untelling the Story
    Rendered in the ceramic sculptures and vessels of Montana-based artist Jessica Brandl are symbols and powerful imagery—like crushed cans and destroyed houses—that compose narratives about American-ness.