Ceramics Monthly Articles (Simple)

  • Joan Takayama-Ogawa: Climate Change
    Global warming’s effect on the planet has been a driving theme in Joan Takayama-Ogawa’s creative career for more than a quarter century. Her past work is best described as exquisitely crafted sculptur
  • Clay Culture: Skincare for Potters
    It’s the middle of winter. You’ve just unloaded a very toasty (hot) kiln to get ready for a show after weeks of long days working with wet clay, abrasive bisque, and buckets of glaze. Your skin needs
  • Tips and Tools: Foam Support
    One of the things that really excited me when I started to work with porcelain was how lightweight my pieces could become. The desire to roll ever-thinner slabs for my cups also came with some issues.
  • A Portrait of Daily Life
    My ceramic work acts as a portrait of daily life. The porcelain forms are illustrated with narrative drawings and observations of my local environment. By showing details of the day that can often be
  • Behind The Kiln Door
    “Experience keeps a hard school but we shall learn in no other.” These words, reportedly uttered by a bystander upon the opening of one of the first kilns ever fired at the Leach Pottery..."
  • Studio Visit: Joseph Sand, Randleman, North Carolina
    My wife, Amanda, and I bought this property in 2009 from the Hurley family, who were descendents of the original homesteaders going back to 1840. The original farmhouse still stands to this day, altho
  • Sue Tirrell: Contemporary American Frontier Ceramic Artist
    The story of drawn or painted pictorial images on ceramic forms is not new. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City houses a collection of early historic ceramic pieces with hand-painted image
  • Recipes: Mid Range to High Fire Underglazes and Glazes
    Calandra Beller Diesel, Mark Cortright, and Autumn Higgins share recipes for the underglazes and glazes they use in their work.
  • February 2018 Call for Entries
    Information on submitting work for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals.
  • Quick Tip: Old Item, New Use
    I use homemade ceramic watercolors to decorate my work. An old ice cube tray works great to keep the colors separate and to provide enough of each color so that I don’t run out while painting a piece.
  • Spotlight: Raku Workshop
    Coming on its sixth year in 2018, the workshop is held in June at my studio and ranch in Haines, Oregon, and always fills to capacity a year prior. It all started in 2012 when I contacted Kevin Flynn
  • January 2018 Call for Entries
    Information on submitting work for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals.
  • Spotlight: Stop, Collaborate, Listen
    Students in Talon Smith and Ben Pyles’ class at Manchester Craftmen’s Guild in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, teamed up, combining ceramics and design.
  • Tips and Tools: Bed of Nails
    A simple bed of nails can be used in the spray booth to prevent glazes and slips from pooling at the bottom of your work. Have you ever sprayed glaze on a piece only to realize afterward that the glaz
  • 2018 Residencies and Fellowships
    This annual guide lists opportunities in alphabetical order by U.S. state, then by country. To ensure complete under- standing of application requirements and what the experience entails, please cont
  • Recipes: Cone 6-10 Recipes to Highlight Texture and Provide Contrast
    Looking for glazes or vitreous engobes that highlight texture and provide strong contrast as accents? Alex Thullen and Judit Varga share recipes they use on their work that do just that.
  • Cont(r)act Earth
    An exhibit at the Henan Museum in Zhengzhou, China, part of the First Central China International Ceramics Biennale, explored interconnected themes of internationalism, activism, history, materiality,
  • Techno File: Cation Exchange
    Plasticity is created by a negative electrostatic charge, and clay memory is caused by a positive charge. Check out how to use this information to create a better clay.
  • Inspired by Wood Firing: Ricardo Campos
    Traditional wood-fired pots from La Bisbal d’Empordà, Spain, inspired Ricardo Campos’ process for creating distinctive, shiny black pots with controlled carbon-trap effects. Since he can’t have a wood
  • Build or Bust
    An intensive two-day work-a-thon at Deb Schwartzkopf’s studio allowed John Chwekun, Lisa Conway, Patsy Cox, Carol Gouthro, Chad Gunderson, Canne Holladay, Isaac Howard, Marge Levy, Sam Scott, Amy Simm