Ceramics Monthly Articles (Simple)

Processing studio detritus and the ways in which ceramic material usage should lean toward sustainability, Claire Ellis’ work has given new life to sink-trap sludge and studio seconds.

Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

If you’re anything like me, you’re pretty good at pouring the glaze in, but when it comes to pouring it out again, the glaze drips and runs onto the outside of your pots.

What I find particularly compelling about the artists in this issue is how they have embedded their stories into their work.

Deadlines for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals.

Whether you want to achieve maximum vitrification for increased strength in functional pottery or find the perfect earthy glaze, check out these recipes from fellow high-firers.

Sometimes, the best option to showcase your surface decoration is a clear glaze. Tinted or not, these recipes will provide a transparent view of the clay, slip, and texture work beneath.

Two pieces of fabric, a needle, spool of thread, and sand are all you need to make a reusable tool to help keep your plates flat.

Want more flashing color in your soda-fired kiln? Learn to adjust the silica-to-alumina ratios, choose appropriate fluxes, and manage soda exposure and cooling rates during firing.

Pinched, stacked, and sgraffitoed, McKay’s vessels are built and decorated layer by layer. She shows how combining unique footprints, rich raw surfaces, and narrative illustrations creates tactile vessels ready for use.

“Treading Lightly: Walking the Talk,” curated by Lisa Orr, highlighted the work of fourteen artists who, each using their own approach and visual language, use clay to speak to pressing ecological and environmental issues.

Sarah Anderson and Austin Coudriet have spent the past couple of years as traveling artists. Ready to set down roots, they have embarked on a mission to build community through the therapeutic impact of clay.

Over 52 firings in fifteen years, 25 interns and dozens of potters contributed to and learned from the wood kiln built on the hill beside Justin and Brooke Rothshank’s Goshun, Indiana, home.

Pulling from her maternal heritage in Panama, her pieces evoke a ritualistic, intimate feel, reflecting themes of identity, ancestry, and resilience.

Richard and Emily James’ collaborative work for a recent exhibition has spurred a future of working together to build both a shared life and body of work.

Large enough to house up to eight people and support a range of creative studios, The Glastonbury Collective is a Northwest Detroit hub for art, ecology, and communal living.

Championing his fellow wood-fire potters started small for Joel Huff, but has since grown into a state-wide movement connecting and uplifting Georgia potters and their work.

Founded over 120 years ago, Pewabic is a Detroit institution providing a living connection to its historic pottery through community workshops, public lectures, and studio programming.