I sometimes spend more time cleaning my studio space than I do making anything in it. Possibly this is due to my OCD and a constant need to rearrange and organize, or it’s my way of processing ideas. Like many of you, I set time aside each week for making, but I’m not always inspired once I am actually in the studio. Sometimes drawing, pinching small maquettes, looking through old sketchbooks, or creating lists helps lift the blockage. The inspiration to create can be cultivated in many ways.
Recently a friend gifted me a free-standing, glass-door cabinet. Upon accepting the piece, I didn’t immediately have a plan for it, so it ended up in my basement. While fussing about one day, I pushed the cabinet into my studio and started filling it with pieces from my ceramics collection, things I loved but didn’t have room for in my cupboards. Suddenly, I was consumed with curating each shelf of the cabinet. I spent days rearranging, adding and subtracting pieces, adding under-shelf lighting, and voilà, my personal ceramics museum was born. Surfaces, textures, colors, narratives, all in one spot to look at, touch, and draw inspiration from. Beautiful and brilliant.
One thing we ask authors to include in their texts for Pottery Making Illustrated is what inspires them. We have read how authors are spurred by childhood memories, nature, popular culture, family heirlooms, historical patterns, etc. What inspires someone to create a particular object or surface is often deeply personal and is a message that they wish to convey through visual means. So, when I read Frank James Fisher’s article (pg. 8) on firing and then displaying the extra bits from his completed pieces as a way to record his unique surface combinations, I knew I wasn’t alone in my personal museum idea, and its use as a teaching/learning tool.
In this issue, which focuses on handbuilding functional ware, Megan Thomas notes that she makes bird pots simply because they make her happy, and the imagery is one that so many people can culturally relate to. Ayla Murray speaks to the nutritional, cultural, and celebratory significance of butter and the importance a well-made butter dish plays on so many dining tables. Lindsay Langsdale’s trompe l’oeil objects reminisce on the discovery of a box of old purses once belonging to her great-grandmother. Dehmie Dehmlow’s use of texture is inspired by her love of photographing decaying architectural surfaces. Joanne Lee has spent a lifetime relocating and never feeling fully grounded, physically and emotionally. Her practice and handcrafted objects anchor her while paying tribute to her Korean cultural heritage, which has never wavered.
Wherever your inspiration comes from, make it something that draws you to the studio, keeps you deeply rooted in process, and makes your objects uniquely yours. Cheers!
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I sometimes spend more time cleaning my studio space than I do making anything in it. Possibly this is due to my OCD and a constant need to rearrange and organize, or it’s my way of processing ideas. Like many of you, I set time aside each week for making, but I’m not always inspired once I am actually in the studio. Sometimes drawing, pinching small maquettes, looking through old sketchbooks, or creating lists helps lift the blockage. The inspiration to create can be cultivated in many ways.
One thing we ask authors to include in their texts for Pottery Making Illustrated is what inspires them. We have read how authors are spurred by childhood memories, nature, popular culture, family heirlooms, historical patterns, etc. What inspires someone to create a particular object or surface is often deeply personal and is a message that they wish to convey through visual means. So, when I read Frank James Fisher’s article (pg. 8) on firing and then displaying the extra bits from his completed pieces as a way to record his unique surface combinations, I knew I wasn’t alone in my personal museum idea, and its use as a teaching/learning tool.
In this issue, which focuses on handbuilding functional ware, Megan Thomas notes that she makes bird pots simply because they make her happy, and the imagery is one that so many people can culturally relate to. Ayla Murray speaks to the nutritional, cultural, and celebratory significance of butter and the importance a well-made butter dish plays on so many dining tables. Lindsay Langsdale’s trompe l’oeil objects reminisce on the discovery of a box of old purses once belonging to her great-grandmother. Dehmie Dehmlow’s use of texture is inspired by her love of photographing decaying architectural surfaces. Joanne Lee has spent a lifetime relocating and never feeling fully grounded, physically and emotionally. Her practice and handcrafted objects anchor her while paying tribute to her Korean cultural heritage, which has never wavered.
Wherever your inspiration comes from, make it something that draws you to the studio, keeps you deeply rooted in process, and makes your objects uniquely yours. Cheers!
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