Polish Pottery

I was introduced to polish pottery several years ago. All of the items are hand made. Hand stamping  is used in order to create the patterns. This allows for the complicated designs and keeps the glaze from being too thick on the pottery itself.

Images are from http://www.polishpottery.com/

Watermelon Bowls

These pieces where made by Samantha Robinson. I love how intricate and detailed the designs are. I also love how some are reminiscent of other things like the first one which she calls watermelon bowls.
http://samantharobinson.com.au/?p=160

Carys Davies

Carys Davies Ceramics

Several pieces of Carys Davies stood out to me because of their very unique glazed finishes. His website describes the glaze as a "rubbed back glazing," and the two shown above are "sea change" and "volcanic" finishes. The bowls on the bottom in particular remind me of pumice, and the texture adds an entirely new level to the form of the bowl.

Ceramics and Light

I had come across Margaret O'Rorke's work last semester, and her pieces capture/emit light in an incredibly beautiful and soft manner.  She pursues several scales of porcelain construction, and once illuminated, the materiality of the clay seems to nearly disappear, allowing for a pure formal reading of the light.      

http://www.castlight.co.uk/index.html

Pottery Tools and Kiln Construction

The first site is simple and includes several tools that I thought were interesting.  Since we work within a certain range of tools within the studio, it is eye-opening to see the incredible range of tools and the forms that can be achieved with such equipment.

http://www.vangilderpottery.com/vgp_store.html

Also, within this site, the side links include Manabigama Kiln, which I was curious to learn more about.  This link is helpful in terms of understanding the benefits of this kiln as a small-scale, rather easily operated unit, ideal for studios, etc.  In addition, the construction process is discussed.

http://manabigama.com/index.php/blog/53-new-salt-manabigama-kiln

Ceramics and Flight

Although this subject matter is incredibly different from the studio, I stumbled upon these websites and thought that they were interesting.  It is amazing that ceramics are so versatile in terms of its physical abilities and that the material is so relied upon in incredibly sensitive technical applications.

http://www.switched.com/2010/09/20/airbus-envisions-invisible-ceramic-skinned-planes-in-2050/

http://www.ceramics-directory.com/about-ceramics-in-aerospace.php

Simple and Practical

I love kitchenware, especially dining ware and I really love the idea of designing and making my own. This class has been the perfect opportunity to gain experience in this area. In the future, I look forward to hopefully getting to make pottery again using the techniques I have learned from this class and I hope to get really good at it.

These are all pottery from Pigeon Toe. I really admire pottery that is simple and practical.