Pottery Making Illustrated Articles (Simple)

Whether using a found object, grinding down hacksaw blades, cutting out your own shapes from clay and bisque firing them, or laser cutting your own tools from pressboard, you need a hard edge to make a crisp impression

While adhering to the bounds set by defining components of pots, I feel the freedom to create work that makes their functionality plausible, but more secondary in consideration.

I am really inspired by the ceramics community as a whole. Besides being great artists, I feel that clay people are just really good people and super fun to be around.

Swap out the standard X-Acto blade for more complex blades to make different marks and cuts in clay.

If I know one thing about ceramic artists, it is that we’ll use a tool until it nearly dies, then we’ll rebuild it to live another life. It is one of our many superpowers.

Careful consideration must be given to its capacity for serving, the expansion and straining of tea leaves, heat retention, the comfort of the handle, the fit of the lid, its balance when tilted, the quality of its pour, and its ability to be cleaned.

When making work for an atmospheric firing, the unpredictable variations that the kiln can produce are my primary inspiration for surface and form.

I draw inspiration from many sources. Growing up in the Midwest, I’m influenced by rural landscapes and Rust Belt city infrastructure.

Making one of these teapots is a labor of love. When I schedule time for making them, I ensure that I have a series of at least four consecutive days in the studio.

The wide, strap-style handle provides comfort, despite the torque of a tall mug. And, the full-ceramic construction (at least with the mid-fire clay and glaze we use) allows drinks to be reheated in a microwave.

These cups are an exploration into echoing those qualities of glass in clay. It is the precision of the trimming on this pot that gives it a clean, glass-like aesthetic.

One meal I find I often make for guests is rice bowls. They are incredibly versatile and filling. I use cereal/soup bowls to serve them as the wide rims hold all the ingredients without overflowing the width of the rim.

This process of throwing and altering introduces even more to the pot’s human anatomy with a face and (for lack of a better term) a butt.

I am most inspired by the tension between the order and chaos of everything from nature to our daily rituals. One of my favorite items to make are small snack saucers.

Excerpted from Functional Pottery by Robin Hopper, published by The American Ceramic Society.

Three accomplished potters, Taylor Sijan, Kyle Brumsted, and Olivia Avery, take us through their process of design, component building, and assembling a teapot.

I am endlessly captivated by human ingenuity and the objects humans create to facilitate life, leisure, and entertainment.

I enjoy slab building because it opens my practice up to endless nuances. I am able to emphasize my love for construction and process and thoroughly articulate specific forms.