Ceramics Monthly Articles (Simple)

  • Techno File: Glaze Lab
    Do you dream about having a glaze lab in your studio but feel such a luxury is out of reach? Learn how to substitute materials so you can create more glazes with fewer ingredients.
  • Nick Geankoplis: Preserving Complexity
    Through appropriated decal imagery from Eastern and Western sources, collaged compositions, and references to history and culture, Nick Geankoplis constructs narratives that remain intentionally ambiguous and open ended.
  • Wild Clay and Glaze
    Excavating local materials to use in clay bodies and glazes can infuse finished work with a sense of place and connect artists with the regions where they live, while also helping to lower the carbon footprint of their studio practices.
  • Rashida Ferdinand: Sculpting the Land, Revitalizing a Community
    Transformation and spiritual containment are central to Rashida Ferdinand’s life and art practice.
  • Cannupa Hanska Luger: Engaging Community
    Often large scale and composed of thousands of components made via collaboration, the work of Cannupa Hanska Luger emphasizes his belief that we need each other.
  • Tearing Down the Gates: Crafting Community Reclaims What Was Lost
    Yinka Orafidiya traveled to Ghana to study under master women potters, then held community-focused workshops upon her return to Philadelphia to share the vessel-making process with Black women.
  • Studio Visit: Byju S R, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
    When planning his second career as an artist, Byju S R moved to a house with a small studio and flexible outdoor patio space suitable for both larger projects and group workshops alike.
  • Clay Culture: ALMA
    An organization in Albuquerque, New Mexico, gives young artists a chance to learn how to plan, make, and install large-scale mosaics that simultaneously relate meaningful stories and beautify buildings around the region.
  • Clay Culture: Kiln Share
    This global database connects kiln owners with those needing to fire their work. Currently boasting 250 kilns, the list is constantly growing.
  • Exposure: April 2022
    Images from Current and Upcoming Exhibitions
  • Quick Tip: Calculating Clay Shrinkage
    Have you ever broken the lid to a fully finished teapot and needed to make a replacement? If you simply measure the lid with calipers, the measurement won’t be accurate.
  • From the Editor: April 2022
    In this issue, we focus on artists who center community in their studio practice and their lives.
  • Summer Workshops 2022
    Want to try a different firing type or learn some new techniques? A summer workshop might be just the thing. Check them out in our annual guide.
  • Spotlight: Constants and Networks
    Malcolm Mobutu Smith discusses how teaching, improvisation, and a hunger for knowledge inspire him. He also shares his belief in the positive impact that maintaining connections can have throughout an artist’s career.
  • Call for Entries: March 2022
    Deadlines for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals.
  • Recipes: From Shino to Slip
    These high-fire shino, slip, and glaze recipes work well in atmospheric kilns (soda, salt, and wood).
  • Tips and Tools: Applying Soda
    There are many ways to add various types of sodium to a firing kiln. Discover the processes and preferences of several artists.
  • Techno File: Reduction
    For those interested in high-fired ceramics with atmospheric surfaces, it’s not only important to know how fuel-fired kilns heat ware to high temperatures, but also how to create and manage reduction in a kiln.
  • Cultural Mosaic and Migration
    Mosaics—pictorial and made of tile, and conceptual as emblematic of culture and complexity—serve as the visual language through which ceramic artist Gökden Alpman Matthews creates highly decorative vessels and sculptures.
  • Walter Ostrom: The Personal is Political
    From his decision to pursue ceramics to his choice to use local earthenware clay in his work and classroom, Walter Ostrom has purposefully merged his social and political beliefs with his art practice.