Cover: Sam Chung Spotlight: Sequoia Miller Technical: Barium and Strontium Glaze: Margaret Bohls Cone 10 Glazes

Transcription

1 Cover: Sam Chung Spotlight: Sequoia Miller Technical: Barium and Strontium Glaze: Margaret Bohls Cone 10 Glazes

2

3 november

4 2 november

5 november

6 4 november

7 Spectrum Glazes Continuing to lead the way. Cone 05 Lead-Free Glazes 151 Golden Halo 152 Moonlight 153 Green Mirror 154 Wrought Iron 155 Brushed Bronze 156 Green Patina SPECTRUM GLAZES INC. PH: (800) FAX: (905) november

8 Application Artist Competition: For enquiries and applications, please contact: Tel: ext Website: NO. 200,Wenhua Rd.,Yingge Dist., New Taipei City 23942, Taiwan (R.O.C.) Tel: Fax: 廣告 6 november

9 In three years, I have run 35 tons of beautifully blended clay through this amazing mixer-pugmill. Paul Latos, Linn Pottery using the Bailey MSV25 Mixer-Pugmill There are 6 models of Bailey MSV Mixer/ Pugmills which pug faster than any other mixer/pugmill in their class. Bailey 3 Stage Blending sets the standard for superior plastic clay prepared in the fastest time. Bailey = Better Blending! Bailey Builds the Best Equipment! Get the lowest discount prices, best selection, best quality products, and the best customer service. Bailey 15 Quick-Trim II A fast low cost trimming tool with a 4 point hold. Mounts instantly on any wheel with 10 bat pins. Can be used clockwise and counter-clockwise. Holders available in 5 heights. Great for Schools! World Famous Bailey Slab Rollers Free Freight Specials Bailey Wheels Shimpo C.I. Brent...and more! World Famous Bailey Extruders...go with the best! Secure those bats! Nitride Bonded High Alumina Shelves Corelite Shelves Bat-Gripper Hold down loose and worn bats Largest selection of tools, stains, and glazes at super discounts! Glaze & Wedge Tables Dust Solutions Rack Systems Toll Free: or Fax: info@baileypottery.com november

10 NEW FROM CONE ART... Cone Art BX2323D Square Kiln For your next kiln make the responsible decision! Contact us for the dealer near you. Dealer inquires welcome. The original true cone 10 kiln since 1982 Multi sided square kiln 8.4 cubic feet shelves are 21 x 21 square 3.5 thick walls Patented lid lifter Element in floor for more even firing 3 zone Bartlett control at no extra charge Sectional design so easy to move Patented Lid Lifter System 32% less HEAT LOSS Double Wall Construction 2.5 brick plus 1 insulation wwwww.coneartkilns.com Tel: Toll free: m o n t h l y Editorial editorial@ceramicsmonthly.org telephone: (614) fax: (614) editor Jessica Knapp associate editor Holly Goring assistant editor Forrest Sincoff Gard editorial support Jan Moloney editorial support Linda Stover technical editor Dave Finkelnburg Advertising/Classifieds advertising@ceramicsmonthly.org telephone: (614) fax: (614) classifieds@ceramicsmonthly.org telephone: (614) national sales director Mona Thiel advertising services Marianna Bracht Marketing telephone: (614) marketing manager Steve Hecker audience development manager Sandy Moening Subscriptions/Circulation customer service: (800) ceramicsmonthly@pubservice.com Design/Production production associate Erin Pfeifer design Boismier John Design digital design specialist Melissa Bury Editorial and advertising offices 600 Cleveland Ave., Suite 210 Westerville, Ohio Publisher Charles Spahr Managing Director Sherman Hall Editorial Advisory Board Linda Arbuckle; Professor, Ceramics, Univ. of Florida Scott Bennett; Sculptor, Birmingham, Alabama Dick Lehman; Studio Potter, Indiana Meira Mathison; Director, Metchosin Art School, Canada Phil Rogers; Potter and Author, Wales Jan Schachter; Potter, California Mark Shapiro; Worthington, Massachusetts Susan York; Santa Fe, New Mexico Ceramics Monthly (ISSN ) is published monthly, except July and August, by Ceramic Publications Company; a subsidiary of The American Ceramic Society, 600 Cleveland Ave., Suite 210, Westerville, Ohio 43082; Periodicals postage paid at Westerville, Ohio, and additional mailing offices. Opinions expressed are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent those of the editors or The American Ceramic Society. The publisher makes no claim as to the food safety of published glaze recipes. Readers should refer to MSDS (material safety data sheets) for all raw materials, and should take all appropriate recommended safety measures, according to toxicity ratings. subscription rates: One year $34.95, two years $59.95, three years $ Canada: One year $49, two years $89, three years $135. International: One year $60, two years $99, three years $145. back issues: When available, back issues are $7.50 each, plus $3 shipping/handling; $8 for expedited shipping (UPS 2-day air); and $9 for shipping outside North America. Allow 4 6 weeks for delivery. change of address: Please give us four weeks advance notice. Send the magazine address label as well as your new address to: Ceramics Monthly, Circulation Department, P.O. Box 15699, North Hollywood, CA contributors: Writing and photographic guidelines are available online at indexing: Visit the Ceramics Monthly website at to search an index of article titles and artists names. Feature articles are also indexed in the Art Index, daai (design and applied arts index). copies: Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use beyond the limits of Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law is granted by The American Ceramic Society, ISSN , provided that the appropriate fee is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923, USA; (978) ; Prior to photocopying items for classroom use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. This consent does not extend to copying items for general distribution, or for advertising or promotional purposes, or to republishing items in whole or in part in any work in any format. Please direct republication or special copying permission requests to the Publisher, The Ceramic Publications Company; a subsidiary of The American Ceramic Society, 600 Cleveland Ave., Suite 210, Westerville, Ohio 43082, USA. postmaster: Send address changes to Ceramics Monthly, P.O. Box 15699, North Hollywood, CA Form 3579 requested. Copyright 2014, The Ceramic Publications Company; a subsidiary of The American Ceramic Society. All rights reserved. 8 november

11 november

12 contents november 2014 volume 62, number 9 editorial 12 From the Editor Jessica Knapp 14 CM Interactive exposure 16 Images from Current and Upcoming Exhibitions reviews 41 Return to Earth: Ceramic Sculpture of Fontana, Melotti, Miró, Noguchi, and Picasso Reviewed by Diana Lyn Roberts In the early to mid 1900s, several well-known painters, sculptors, and architects translated their ideas into clay. An exhibition showcasing this work was recently on view at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas. 51 Terra Ignis: Miquel Barceló s Ceramics Reviewed by Bryan K. Alexander An exhibition of Barceló s large and small-scale sculptural vessels, bricks, and heads was recently on display in the Museu Nacional do Azulejo in Lisbon, Portugal. 54 Maurice Savoie: A Life with Porcelain Reviewed by John K. Grande The works spanning several decades of Savoie s long career exhibited at the House of Culture of Longueuil in Longueuil, Canada, showcase his focus on playful and poetic forms. techno file 64 Strontium/Barium by Dave Finkelnburg Knowing when to use strontium or barium has been a long-time struggle for many potters in the glaze lab. Here are a few answers to help you make an informed decision. tips and tools 66 Simple Apron Making by Jeni Hansen Gard and Lindsay Scypta Keep your studio clothes clean(er) and do it with style by making your own custom apron. resources Call for Entries Information on submitting work for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals. 78 Classifieds Looking to buy? Looking to sell? Look no further. 79 Index to Advertisers spotlight 80 Growth and Change by Sequoia Miller Sequoia Miller wanted to take more than his pots to the next level, he wanted to make a real change for himself. So he enrolled in a PhD program at Yale. 10 november

13 clay culture 24 Collaborating with a Tree by Ron Lang There s more than meets the eye when it comes to choosing a ceramic pot for bonsai trees. Like choosing a cup for tea, one should not only consider size and shape, but also color, character, and in this case, even gender. 28 Dropping the Urn by Paul Mathieu Breaking objects to create art and making work out of broken ceramic objects are not uncommon approaches as artists navigate and comment on our consumer culture. studio visit 32 Mieko Sagisaka and Richard Truckle, Tokoname, Japan by Lucie Brisson An artist couple who create work in separate spaces in Tokoname, Japan, and fire together in gas and wood kilns talk about their experience. features 36 Stepping Out Through the In Door by Sam Chung Making a radical change in your work can be a daunting challenge. Sometimes collaborating with another artist can help you jump start the process. monthly method Cloud Vase by Sam Chung 46 Tying It All Together by Margaret Bohls For a career in making functional ceramic ware to be both long and successful, one must know how and when to evolve his or her work. Margaret Bohls has navigated that path very well and more than once. 57 Wood Firing: Wadding by Simon Levin To Simon Levin, there is a science behind each step of a wood firing, including what goes into the wadding and how it s used in the loading and firing process. glaze 68 The Modernist Series: Clay and Glaze Recipes by Margaret Bohls Margaret Bohls shares several of the high-fire recipes she s using in her newest body of work. 70 Clear Liner Glaze by Sam Chung Check out Sam Chung s liner glaze that he uses on his Cloud Series vessels. cover: Sam Chung s Cloud Bottle, 11 in. (28 cm) in height, porcelain, glaze, china paint, november

14 from the editor respond to Regeneration The busy fall publication schedule that includes the Ceramic Arts Yearbook (which subscribers will receive along with this issue) means that we have four press deadlines that fall within the same 30-day time frame. Of course there is a lot of prep work that goes in before that time, but the focused attention on these four issues at the same time feels a lot like getting ready for a large exhibition or pottery sale. This year, I also had the chance to see some amazing work through two separate events during this time. I visited Korea as one of the committee members chosen to pick the jury for the 2015 Gyeonggi International Ceramics Biennale, and had the chance to Above: The front of the Cerapia museum complex s main building, which houses four-floors worth of museum space as well as the artist-in-residence workspaces. Right: Sam Chung s Cloud Couple, shown at the opening for the Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics exhibition. see some inspiring artwork and impressive facilities at the Cerapia (Icheon World Ceramic Center) in Icheon, Gyeonggi, Korea. Along with fellow staff members, I also had the chance to see the inaugural exhibition of the Zanesville Prize for Contemporary Ceramics, for which our very own Sherman Hall was one of the jurors. It was inspiring to see 100 pieces by an international group of artists arranged in the gallery. One of the pieces selected was by Sam Chung, who has a piece gracing the cover of this issue. I ve noticed that after focused periods of creative teamwork and opportunities to see inspiring exhibitions, there is an interesting period of creative progress for everyone involved. The energy of fast-paced work, combined with the knowledge gained by being so intensely focused, leads to new ideas for articles, layouts, and related content, and creative connections that would not have been possible before. Two of the artists featured in this issue, Margaret Bohls and Sam Chung, mention this type of creative boost when they discuss the ways that they have regenerated their work, through a change in place or a chance to see their work through someone else s perspective. Chung discusses how a combination of a change in place and participation in a collaborative exhibition led to the stylistic changes in his work, from soda firing and handbuilding to china painting on wheel-thrown white porcelain forms starting on page 36. Bohls discusses the numerous series of works she has created, some simultaneously, others sequentially, and some that resurface in altered forms on page 46. A third artist, Sequoia Miller, discusses the way his career changed soon after he was featured as a working potter in Ceramics Monthly in the June/July/August 2010 issue, a transition that saw him return to school to study design and art history. Check it out in the Spotlight on page 80. The ways these artists have pushed through the self doubt that comes with change or creative growth, and the ways they examined the impetus for change to find a suitable direction is well worth the read, and may even help you in your own creative path. 12 november

15 DOING OUR PART TO BE SURE THAT OBJECTS ARE FOUND EVERY HOUSEHOLD IN The only wheels with a 10 year warranty and a $100 AMACO Glaze Rebate! november

16 cm interactive Subscriber Extras In addition to the articles in the print edition, check out the digital edition (just go to the table of contents for this issue at and enter your subscriber number) for additional images and articles related to this issue. Once you log on, you ll be able to see extra images for the features on Sam Chung, Margaret Bohls, Studio Visit artists Mieko Sagisaka and Richard Truckle, the Clay Culture article on Bonsai Pots, and the Tips and Tools article on making your own studio apron. You ll also have access to archive articles by Glen R. Brown on Margaret Bohls and Sam Chung s work, and an article on historical to contemporary Korean Buncheong ware. This type of work has been made for centuries, and includes some of the Joseon-era barrel vases that inspired Sam Chung s most recent body of work. More Inspiration This month on Pinterest, we have boards focused on Korean Joseon-dynasty bottles (so you can see what Sam Chung refers to as inspiration for his work), Bonsai pots in all of their creative variety, handmade studio aprons including different styles and links to find patterns, and additional work by Margaret Bohls, Sam Chung, and Simon Levin. Social Media Sam Chung discusses the way all of us are working along a continuum, with what we make now informing what we ll make next, and the ways that all of our experiences and connections to other people can have a major impact on what we do. On Facebook, we re posting short timelines for the artists featured in this issue with a few images to show how their work has changed. We invite you to share your own timeline images of ceramic work with us. Use the hashtag #regeneration. Have samples of engaging work of your own or that you admire that are made using broken ceramics? Share images with us on Instagram and Facebook! Use the hashtag #shardsrepurposed. Corrections In the Peter Callas Hot Environment article in our October issue, we incorrectly listed his piece as Hot Pocket 117. The correct title should be Hot Pocket 17. In All Those Plates: Molly Hatch s Physic Garden, the author mentions that Hatch s show, Covet was exhibited at the Met in New York City, but it was actually a body of work sourced with the Met s permission and guidance. 14 november

17 Bailey has redefined the standards for excellence in electric kiln design. Not just by a little, but by a lot. Features: Shatter Proof Element Holders Emissivity Energy Efficient Coatings Built in UV Eye Protection Massive Long Life Elements Bailey Quick-Fix Brick System Bailey Quick-Change Element Holders Easy Fit Shelf Design Adjustable Door Seals 6 Compressed Fiber Roof System Stainless Steel Brick Edge Protectors Bailey Efficiency-Plus Radiant Heat Pattern Ventilated Exterior Frame Ventilated Spy Port Ventilated Door Seal Ventilated Interior Chamber Imagine an element holder so strong that it can withstand 22 lbs. of direct force and not fracture or chip. If need be, you can immediately pull the holder out and replace it in seconds if there was a kiln accident. This same innovative element holder adds to energy efficiency because it transfers more radiant heat into the load instead of the insulating brick. It doesn t get better than this! And there s more, much more. Look to Bailey innovation when you want the very best products and value. Bailey Double Insulated Top Loaders Check out our line of double insulated top loaders. They have 32% less heat loss compared to conventional electric kilns. Bailey Thermal Logic Kilns Professionals Know the Difference. Bailey Pottery Equipment Corporation (800) Direct: (845) november

18 exposure for complete calendar listings see november

19 5 4 1 Matt Jones platter, 17 in. (43 cm) in diameter, wood-fired stoneware. 2 Mark Hewitt s Pale Storage Jar, 11 in. (28 cm) in height, stoneware. Greetings from North Carolina! at Santa Fe Clay ( in Santa Fe, New Mexico, through November 8. 3 Stacy Snyder s pitcher, 12 in. (30 cm) in height, red stoneware, decal, enamel, multiple firings in an electric kiln, Photo: Greg Staley. 4 Dan Finnegan s Tulip Vase, 14 in. (36 cm) in height, stoneware, crackle slip, wood-ash glaze, salt glazed, wood fired, Bandana Pottery s (Naomi Dalglish and Michael Hunt) pitcher, 12 in. (30 cm) in height, local clay, wood fired, Michael Kline s platter, 16 in. (41 cm) in diameter, wheel-thrown stoneware, wax-resist decoration, melted bottle glass, copper glaze, salt glazed, wood fired, Photo: Tim Barnwell. Pottery on the Hill, at Hill Center Galleries ( in Washington, DC, through November november

20 exposure Lauren Gallaspy s Bling Ring 1, 4 in. (10 cm) in height, porcelain, glaze, china paints, Trent Burkett s yunomi, 3½ in. (9 cm) in height, porcelain, glaze, china paint, Talk to Me: Cups that Communicate, Signature Shop and Gallery, ( in Atlanta, Georgia, November Robin DuPont s latte cups, 5 in. (13 cm) in height, porcelain, soda fired, Robin DuPont s chocolate pot, 7 in. (18 cm) in height, stoneware, soda fired. 5 Sarah Pike s Cream and Sugar, 7 in. (18 cm) in height, stoneware, oxidation fired. Caffeine, at Discovery Gallery, Alberta Craft Council ( discovery-gallery), in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, through November 29, november

21 6 7 6 Diana Farfán s Top-Heavy, 28 in. (71 cm) in height, white stoneware, glazes, fired to cone 6 in oxidation, mixed media, Bread and Circus Sculpture by Diana Farfán, at Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery ( in Conway, South Carolina, through November Lisa Marie Barber s Yellow Hearted Woman, 4 ft. 2 in. (1.3 m) in height, ceramic. Photo: Don Lintner. 8 Jocelyn Braxton Armstrong s Mother and Child, 22 in. (56 cm) in height, porcelaneous stoneware, black slip. 9 Claudia Olds Goldie s Navigating a Dream, 20 in. (51 cm) in height, stoneware, wood, graphite pencil drawing. Photo: Will Howcroft. 10 Zhanna Martin s There is Somebody for Everybody, 16 in. (41 cm) in height, clay, acrylic. Looking at Ourselves: Contemporary Figure, at Baltimore Clayworks ( in Baltimore, Maryland, through November november

22 exposure Nicholas Oh s Teapot #4, 6 in. (15 cm) in height, porcelain, fired in oxidation to cone 6. 2 Victoria Claire Dawes set of platters, 36 in. (91 cm) in height (installed), earthenware, fired to cone 3 in an electric kiln. 3 Jeremy Lee Wallace s serving platter, 15 in. (38 cm) in diameter, stoneware, wood fired to cone 13 in a train kiln. 4 Dganit Moreno s sugar and creamer, 11 in. (28 cm) in length, stoneware, fired in oxidation to cone Kyle Johns Double Stacked Vase, 7½ in. (19 cm) in height, porcelain, fired in reduction to cone Justin Keith Lambert s pitcher set with cups, 11 in. (28 cm) in height, porcelain blend, wood fired to cone 12 in an anagama kiln. 7 Michael Anthony Lentini s small serving bowl, 5¾ in. (15 cm) in diameter, porcelain, fired to cone 10 in an electric kiln. 22nd Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National, at Kevin Lehman s Pottery ( in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, through November november

23 PC-4 Palladium over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-12 Blue Midnight over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-20 Blue Rutile over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-28 Frosted Turquoise over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-62 PC-35 Layering Notes: Brush Apply on two layers of base coat. Brush Apply on two one layers of top coat. (Let dry dry between coats.) coats.) Cone 5-6 Potter s Choice Layering PC-31 Oatmeal over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-42 Seaweed over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-33 Iron Lustre over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-43 Toasted Sage over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-36 Ironstone over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-49 Frosted Melon over PC-35 Oil Spot Clay: AMACO Buff Stoneware No. 46 over PC-35 Oil Spot PC-57 Smokey Merlot over PC-35 Oil Spot Join the conversation Conforms to ASTM D-4236

24 exposure Les Miley s Wabash Contours XI, 12 in. (53 cm) in diameter, stoneware, salt fired, David Gamble s platter, 21 in. (53 cm) in diameter, terra cotta, red glaze with blue brush strokes, John Goodheart s The All-wise Bourbon Bottle, 15 in. (38 cm) in height, clay, metal, wood, rubber, : Photo: Scott Frankenberger. Indiana Ceramics Celebration, at the Haan Mansion Museum of Indiana Art ( in Lafayette, Indiana, November Ken Price s cup, 3½ in. (9 cm) in height, glazed ceramic, ca Courtesy of The Estate of Ken Price. 5 Sugimoto Sadamitsu s Iga Mizusashi, 8¼ in. (21 cm) in height, stoneware. 6 Georges Jeanclos Couple Dormeur, 18 in. (46 cm) in length, terra cotta. 4 6: Photo: Gabriel Seri. Courtesy of Frank Lloyd Gallery. Three exhibitions ( Ken Price, Japanese Ceramics, and Georges Jeanclos ) at Frank Lloyd Gallery ( in Santa Monica, California, through November november

25 OCTOBER 24 - NOVEMBER 22, 2014 ADAM FIELD SAMUEL JOHNSON PETER PINCUS NOVEMBER 14, pm Artist Reception NOVEMBER 15, pm Symposium jane hartsook gallery, greenwich house pottery 16 jones street, nyc greenwichhousepottery.org 2014 Exhibition Series CERAMICS NOW This program is supported by the Windgate Charitable Foundation, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Allan Buitekant Fund for Ceramic Art & Inquiry, the Hompe Foundation, the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

26 clay culture collaborating with a tree Bonsai has a long tradition in Asian culture and much like tea, its relationship to the ceramic container is as important as its shape and size. by Ron Lang Steeped in centuries of tradition, bonsai is an ever-evolving art form often described as living sculpture. With origins in ancient China, nearly 1000 years of development and refinement in Japan and its worldwide practice, and appreciation today, bonsai has adapted itself to reflect the various tastes and times of the many countries, cultures, and climates where it has taken root. Bonsai can be understood and misunderstood on many levels. By definition the term is disarmingly simple Bon the Japanese term for container and sai a plant or planting. But in practice an elegant bonsai tree in a well-selected ceramic container is as far removed from a houseplant as chanoyu, the Japanese tea ceremony, is from a tea bag in a styrofoam cup. Both tea and bonsai have deep and time-honored connections with ceramic vessels and the artists/potters who have provided them. Bonsai Container Requirements Often one of the final steps in preparing a bonsai for exhibition is the selection of a container that will bring out the best qualities in the tree. After conceivably years of careful nurturing and detailed styling during which the tree has been kept in an inexpensive training container, it is now finally ready to go on stage. While the selection of the container is a subjective choice it is often strongly weighted by the prevailing guidelines: The container should be complementary to the tree, its style and form, texture, color, and mood. The process of selecting a container is much the same process a painter goes through to select a frame for a particular painting. Cast in this traditional role, the container performs a rather passive, albeit supportive part in the overall scheme of things. The tree is the focus. And beyond fundamental horticultural requirements, the bonsai pot is selected to support but never upstage. Such criteria make sense on many levels. However for someone who has practiced bonsai for almost 30 years and ceramics for 40, the overly simplistic container-likea-frame-for-a-painting equivalence is wearing thin for me. Does a painting really even need a frame? Bonsai by definition does need its container and for reasons beyond functional life support. The magic of bonsai, the marvel and wonder of seeing an actual living tree in an unaccustomed miniature scale is initiated by the container beneath it. Rather than just being a substitute for the earth, the container is the artistic mechanism, the human element that stages the drama. Default Bonsai Containers Because aesthetic tradition is so deeply rooted in the East, there has been a strong tendency to fall back on tradition for bonsai containers. Specialty nurseries import a wide range of containers mostly from China and Japan and quality can vary greatly. Containers produced for the mass market are slip cast, vary in the quality of their glazes and the durability of the clay. Chinese manufactured containers from the Yixing region are renowned for their beautiful clays with silky smooth surface texture and beautiful range of clay body colors, yet many of the surfaces from this region are surprisingly stark and glossy with a limited choice of monochromatic colors. Experts desire soft-matte or low-sheen surfaces in colors that enhance a tree s foliage in various seasons. Flowering bonsai merit colorful glazes that complement their annual presentations. For generations, potters in the Yixing region and throughout China have produced high-quality work with sophisticated glaze palettes. These are the most sought after and valuable pieces, both contemporary and antique. The same is true in Japan. The potteries and kilns of the Tokoname region are renowned for having produced ceramics for almost 1000 years. Individual craftsmen produce high-end wares, including bonsai pots while the overall quality of factory production tends to be superior to the current Chinese manufactured ware. Horticultural Essentials Whether a bonsai container is traditional in design or experimental and innovative, it needs to support the basic health of the tree: The container must drain well. Roots in poorly draining soil will quickly rot and the tree will die. Pots must have at least one drainage hole, two or three are better. No matter the size november

27 of the pot, holes should be between ¾ inch and 1½ inches in diameter. Smaller holes tend to clog with soil and roots. Rectangles and ovals will often have three to five holes and round pots will have one to four holes, again depending on the span of the floor. Drainage holes should be covered over with mesh prior to adding soil. Add wire tie-in holes to anchor the tree. These will be another grouping of much smaller holes, between 1 8 to 3 16 inches in diameter, which should be made toward the outer edge of the floor close to the container walls. These tie-in holes allow wire to be threaded up through the container to firmly tie the tree into the pot. Bonsai can easily blow over or out of their containers, especially when first planted. This is another sought after feature not often found in imported pots. The container should be raised on stable feet. Beyond the visual effect of nicely designed feet, bonsai containers need to be raised slightly. This allows the free drainage of water as well as good air circulation preventing build up of molds and fungus. The raised floor also allows clearance for the tie-in wires and provides a stable platform. Care in the firing should be taken to support the span of the floor to prevent any warping. Containers that have a rim that turns inward or have pronounced convex walls where the opening at the top is much narrower than the body are problematic for bonsai. Roots fill containers at different rates and trees need to be removed for pruning every so often. The narrow top creates a challenge when removing the tree. Either root damage occurs in the process or the container itself can be broken. Variety Is Key When viewing an exhibition of bonsai you will see tiny representative styles called Shohin, only 6 to 8 inches in height, often grouped on specialized, multi-leveled stands. Nearby may be a formal uprightstyle tree, 40 inches in height that will command 6 linear feet of display space all on its own and be potted in a 30-inch by 18-inch rectangular, slab-formed container that is 4 inches high. Because bonsai vary so greatly in size and in style from one to the next, from species to species, the variety of pot styles needed is equally broad. Clay and Glaze Requirements What determines a good clay body for bonsai pots? A well-vitrified clay body is the best option for almost all bonsai wares. Stoneware bodies tend to work very well. Low-fire clay bodies and glazes that can absorb any moisture may work in tropical regions but won t hold up over time in temperate zones where freezing and thawing cycles occur. Keep in mind that most bonsai are outdoors year round and often get only a modicum of protection over winters. Containers and the glazes on them have to hold up to such conditions. Bonsai pots should not be glazed on the interior beyond the top ½ to ¾ inch or so. Considering Character When we consider surface qualities appropriate for bonsai pots we can start with the most popular and versatile that also happens to be the simplest; the basic unadorned and unglazed. Typical stoneware formulations exhibit rich, reduction-fired surfaces. This warm and neutral quality is sought after for conifer varieties like pines, junipers, cedar, spruce, fir, and larch, which tend to be rugged and have textured bark, featuring areas of deadwood along their trunks and among their branches. Deadwood on trunks (called shari) and in the branching (called jin) is a desirable feature that references a Sharon Edwards-Russell s bonsai vessel, 13 in. (33 cm) in length, slab built, double-wall construction. 2 Sharon Edwards-Russell s bonsai vessel, 8 in. (20 cm) in length, slab built, double-wall construction. 3 Sara Rayner s bonsai vessel, glazed stoneware. 4 Shohin display, Suthin Sukosolvisit (stylist) at the 3rd US National Bonsai Exhibition, in Rochester, New York, november

28 clay culture tree s age and hard lifestyle. Such specimens usually collected in the mountains can be heavy trunked, twisted, and contorted are often categorized as masculine. All of these characteristics that give a tree its individual identity help to determine the type of container that works best for it. For the masculine varieties, the container predictably would be subdued in color and usually unglazed, nothing bright or distracting. Design elements associated with masculine pot forms are visually stable, with simple clean lines and sharp or angular edges, primarily rectangular or square forms. Yet I often notice that in even the most masculine trees there are often subtle undertones, a turn in the trunk or softness of foliage or a gesture that complicates easy gender assignment. The rectangle shape might be reconsidered and one selected with softer corners, a rounded-off rim, or with a foot that bends slightly outward from the base. Such design elements might be used to compliment subtle qualities in the tree that could be overlooked if going with the purely masculine. Conversely, trees that are naturally delicate in appearance or have soft silhouettes and graceful lines are styled to take advantage of such qualities. Feminine bonsai demonstrate fluid movement and gestures that can be almost dance like. Maples, elms, beech, Japanese white pine and larch, and many of the flowering varieties of trees and shrubs like crabapple, plum, and azalea often are styled in feminine forms. For their containers, such trees call for soft curvilinear shapes. Oval and round containers with varying wall profiles and more elaborate rim solutions work well with such bonsai. Consideration for the small details like the foot treatment beneath, that would tend to be a bit narrower and perhaps taller than in the masculine pots, all contribute to elegance and sophistication. The masculine/feminine gender assignment for bonsai is merely a way to discuss and classify the styling potential of a tree. It is a way to organize one s thoughts about future design decisions or critique aspects of a given specimen using a common vocabulary. Speculation or Fact Ceramic artist Sharon Edwards-Russell and I have made and sold many bonsai pots over the years on speculation educated guesses about sizes, styles, and glazes that wait on shelves for the right buyer. But the most satisfying way for us to work is directly with the customer november

29 Brett Thomas untitled, Jack Sustic stylist, 22 in. (56 cm) in height (with tree), wood-fired stoneware, at the Bonsai insites Exhibition, Baltimore Clayworks, Baltimore, Maryland, Photo: Dan Meyers. 6 Peter Krebs stoneware container, Martin Schmalenberg stylist, Pitch Pine, 20 in. (51 cm) in height, at the 2nd US National Bonsai Exhibition, Rochester, New York, Photo by J. Noga. 7 Japanese Tokoname Ware, stoneware container, Satsuki Azalea, 26 in. (66 cm) in height, at the 2nd US National Bonsai Exhibition, Rochester, New York, Photo by J. Noga. 8 Ron Lang s, Cliff Dweller container with Japanese Garden Juniper, 21 in. (53 cm) in height wood-fired stoneware, Bonsai insites Exhibition, Baltimore Clayworks Maryland, Richard Notkin s Growth, Ron Lang stylist, Satsuki Azalea, 17 in. (43 cm) in length, sand-blasted stoneware. 10 Golden State Bonsai Federation stylist, Japanese stoneware container, Coast Redwood, 40 in. (1 m) in height, 1st US National Bonsai Exhibition, Rochester, New York, Photo: F. Grillo. and to design the container from the start for a specific tree. This kind of custom-order business has increased for us over the years. Some folks have a good idea of what they want and we only have to determine size dimensions and finishes. Others will share images of the tree and ask for a lot of input and suggestions. Making good bonsai pots is not so much a technical challenge as it is a conceptual one. By describing the variables, it is easy to blur the distinction between functional and aesthetic. If bonsai is to evolve as an art form, it will need to be receptive to new ideas, new ways of envisioning. Context and Concept Back in 2002, I was invited by Baltimore Clayworks to curate an exhibition that would reflect my interest in bonsai and ceramics. The exhibition, Bonsai insites: Collaboration of Tree and Container, challenged fifteen ceramic artists to envision a place within their realm of art for a living organism and create a piece that would both visually and practically accommodate a miniature tree. The ceramic artists were provided with basic information about the horticultural requirements necessary to sustain a bonsai. Conceptualizing the container/tree marriage beyond fundamental harmony and function is the potential I see for bonsai presentation in the future. Sculptural contexts, abstract, or narrative content are all grounds for investigation. It is a rare opportunity to attempt to merge a traditional art form with innovative critical thought. Here s Your Chance The National Bonsai Foundation will host the 3rd National Bonsai Pot Exhibition, in June of 2015 at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum of the US National Arboretum in Washington, DC. The jurors are Sara Rayner from Red Wing, Minnesota; Michael Hagedorn from Portland, Oregon; and Deborah Bedwell from Baltimore, Maryland. Visit the National Bonsai Foundation website for information: The American Bonsai Society website contains valuable information, images, and research topics on bonsai as well as regional club info: The Phoenix Bonsai Society website has information specific to bonsai pots and links to bonsai potters websites: More about accent plants and their containers: org/species-specific/accent-plantings/accent-plants-for-bonsai and the author Ron Lang is professor emeritus at The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland, where he chaired the Ceramics department for 33 years. Since retirement in 2008, together with Sharon Edwards-Russell, a ceramic artist and educator, Lang has set up a studio and started a bonsai container business in central Pennsylvania. Follow Ceramics Monthly on Pinterest to see more images of bonsai containers. november

30 clay culture dropping the urn The vandalism to an Ai Weiwei installation at the Peréz Art Museum Miami earlier this year brings up questions about when it is or is not okay to make art by breaking art. by Paul Mathieu Why is it that so many artists feel they can break ceramic objects, usually pots, with such impunity? Could they get away with it with any other art form? Would it be so readily acceptable to break, smash, throw, drop, damage or destroy a painting, a photograph or any other artwork? Why is it so common and so tolerated (not only acceptable but almost prescribed) to do so with ceramics? Of course, breaking things or referencing breakage has always been fertile ground for expression, as this offers subtle to obvious potential for psychological and metaphorical interpretation. Examples abound. Not surprisingly, an early practitioner in the art of breaking a pot was Yoko Ono in her performance at the Whitney Museum where a large blue-and-white Chinese porcelain vase was smashed and the resulting shards given to members of the audience (if a vase breaks in the absence of witnesses, does it make any sound?), with the intention that they would all return at a specific time in the future to reassemble the vase. At least, there was a reparative intention at work here. As is so often the case with these kinds of gestures/events/performances/installations, it was imitated by others, notably by Eloise O Hare in her Pretend Ono Performance where a big handmade terra-cotta pot was also smashed; Chris Martin does something similar, also with a large Chinese blueand-white porcelain vase that he pushes over, but he then re-glues all the bits back together himself; there are numerous art videos and installations where vases, found or made, are broken (Feiko Beckers comes to mind). Within the field of ceramics itself, many practitioners have worked with re-assembled broken pots and here Rick Dillingham was a bit of a precursor in the 80 s, but also Keiko Fukazawa and too many others to list here; Marek Cecula s floor mandalas are assembled with broken dishes; Jim Melchert breaks tiles, paints them and reassembles them; Booke de Vries works with broken vases and figurines and makes impressive and ambitious installations mining the psychological potential of the fragments to comment on historical/political destructive events; Kerri Reid makes series of fake broken pots where each pots appears to be broken exactly like all the others, an impossibility within entropy and the laws of physics; Li Xiao Feng makes wearable dresses made with broken porcelain dishes; Clare Twomey has piled huge quantities of ceramic shards in a gallery context, as does Cai Guo Qiang and many others; Liu Jianhua has made then smashed large quantities of cast porcelain objects from multiple sources referencing consumer culture. Yee Soo Kyung makes sculptural ceramics from broken pots as well, and we all are familiar with Julian Schnabel s broken dishes paintings. There are too many others, within art, craft, design, and media practices who make work with broken dishes or faux broken, cracked, or repaired dishes of all kinds to list here. The work of Richard Milette is exemplary in that regard for his conceptual complexity. Furthermore and notably, photographer Martin Klimas captures ceramic figurines as they explode when hitting the ground; in the sphere of design, the breakage conceit has become a bit of an obsession recently, and I will mention here Tjep Design and their Do Break Vase that remains integral even after it has been dropped and broken; Alexander Hulme whose plate produces two smaller dishes if you drop and/or break the larger one; Dorota Skalska and Agnieszka Mazur whose Corezone is a ceramic heart that requires breaking to reveal its message; StudioKahn makes ceramic jewelry that must be broken and reassembled to become a necklace (see CM Spotlight article, March 2012, pg 80), and there is also Stephen Burks whose plastic vases look like they were made from reassembled shards. The list goes on. So after dropping all these names, it is time to talk about Ai Weiwei s Dropping the Urn. Ai Weiwei s photographic work Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, 1995, is one of his most famous and 1 iconic 28 november

31 event-based art pieces. The three large, probably life-sized black and white photographs show the artist holding a vase, then dropping it, and then standing there in front of smashed bits covering the ground. The performance was apparently spontaneous and improvised. Weiwei had just gotten a new digital camera and he wanted to check how quickly it could take pictures. He asked an assistant to take the pictures as he grabbed a vase nearby, held it in his hands and dropped it while the camera clicked away. I speculate that when the artist saw the images later, he realized right away their potential and inherent, symbolic power. Never one to pass up an opportunity, they became one of his most reproduced and widely distributed works. Vandalism is a necessary artistic rite of passage, it now seems. There just happened to be a vase available nearby. It is supposed to be Han Dynasty (206 BCE 220 CE), and I suspect it actually was the real thing by the look of it, since Ai Weiwei s Beijing studio is littered with all kinds of Chinese stuff that are used in various and rather inventive ways by the artist. I know first-hand since (bragging time) I have actually visited the place myself. He did really like my red shoes and photographed a patch of ground with my brightly shod feet. It may very well be my claim to fame one day, my very own fifteen minutes. The Han vase was handy and readily available. Weiwei is also famously known to dunk and drip garish paint colors over ancient pottery vases that can easily be bought for not much more than a hundred bucks, often less, in any antique shop in China. There is what appears to be an endless supply of them. Many are reproductions, rather obvious at times, and I would suspect that Weiwei even has some brand new ones made specifically for him. The more recent examples have such sharp edges and clear articulations that they scream: thrown on an electric wheel! No ancient pot looks like that. The new forms are much more about external compression than internal expansion, which would be the case if they were of antiquity. Yet, who is to know once the thing is covered with paint, and who cares anyway. Antiquity is not the point here, and I even wonder if authenticity is an issue at all. I predict thousands and thousands of Ai Weiwei fake painted vases will appear in the marketplace, in the future. They will be ridiculously easy to make, as there really is nothing personal or original, beyond the concept, about them. Their operative painting process relies on entropy, as it does for breakage, and entropy as a law of physics is a constant for everyone, not just famous artists. Which brings us now to Maximo Caminero, the Miami artist who, when confronted with a series of painted Ai Weiwei vases presented on a low white plinth in front of the three iconic photographs of Dropping the Urn at the Peréz Art Museum Miami in Miami, Florida, apparently spontaneously, like Weiwei himself originally, picked up one of the vases and dropped it. The whole thing was captured on video cellphone by an unsuspecting witness Is that a fact? and has made the round of the news cycle and the web, ever since (the news cycle just for a few days, like anything else). The press in its habitual exaggerated dramatization and its propensity to make tempests in teacups, keeps repeating endlessly that the said dropped vase is (was) worth a million dollars, 1 Yee Sookyung s The Moon, 3 ft 3 in. (1 m) in height, ceramic shards, epoxy, 24k gold leaf, resin, Marek Cecula s Mandala, 4 ft. (1.2 m) in diameter, industrial porcelain waste (shards), Photo: Sebastian Zimmer. when a simple internet search reveals that similar to identical examples sold recently for as little (!) as $15,000 each. I wish this were true of my own work! But a million dollars sounds so much better. It reminds me of Doctor Evil (and Mini Me) in the Austin Powers movies who, when expressing awe at a stupendous amount of money, puts his right pinky to his lips and slowly articulates ONE MILLION DOLLARS! Both artists have various reasons for justifying their respective, if similar, action. I won t go into that here. As a potter myself, I just ask why is it so acceptable to break ceramic pots? Is the simple fact of ownership enough justification to alter to the point of destruction, another artist s work? After all, that is also what Ai Weiwei did and will probably continue doing: he destroys by breaking or again modifies drastically by covering it with paint, another artist s work. Whether this artist lived in the Han Dynasty or happens to be a more recent faker or was hired by Ai Weiwei to make convincing reproductions, this actual maker was making aesthetic choices and was de facto an artist as well, if we accept the dubious premise that aesthetics has anything to do with art now. It is really interesting that the older an object is, the more acceptable it is as art, yet the less it is considered the work of an artist! Of course Weiwei bought or paid for these objects; he owns them. Caminero doesn t. Weiwei himself said, I am the only one who owns my work. So, is ethical behavior reduced to the simple fact of ownership? In our capitalist, consumer society, meaning resides in consumption, both in buying and in throwing away, and basically nowhere else. I hope Maximo Caminero ends up profiting from the publicity and makes a buck from his gesture. He probably will. We also know that Ai Weiwei will cash in even more. Good for them! Too bad for the pots! the author Paul Mathieu is a potter living in Vancouver, Canada, where he teaches ceramics at Emily Carr University. His most recent book, The Art of the Future; a History and Theory of Ceramics is available for FREE online at november

32 30 november

33 november

34 studio visit Mieko Sagisaka and Just the Facts Clay Sagisaka: Shigaraki stoneware mixed with store-bought local clay Truckle: Shigaraki buff stoneware Primary forming method Sagisaka: throwing and coiling, (about half and half) Truckle: throwing Primary firing temperature Sagisaka and Truckle: gas reduction to 2246/64 F, wood firing to 2264 F Favorite surface treatment Sagisaka: slip trailing/ finger combing, mishima Truckle: carving Favorite tools Sagisaka: home-made bamboo modelling tool Truckle: wire turning tool Studios Richard Truckle and Mieko Sagisaka have been making pots in various studio spaces in Tokoname since Tokoname is one of the Six Ancient Kilns (ceramics towns) of Japan and boasts a walking path (the Sampomichi) that leads past historical kiln sites and contemporary workshops. Currently Sagisaka works from a small 6-tatami room, which equals about 19 square feet ( m), built in the garden of their traditional wooden house. The studio is warm and comfortable in winter but gets incredibly stuffy in summer, so in the hot months she moves to the house to handbuild. There is also a gallery on site that showcases both artists work. A farmer who owns land nearby has allowed them to rent part of his property on a temporary basis to build a wood kiln. Truckle rents a studio on the grounds of a ceramic school a kilometer away. It s larger than Sagisaka s studio, but damper, darker, and colder. Unfortunately it s difficult to find a welllit, well-insulated workshop in town, he says. He s closed off and insulated part of the room for winter and uses the rest of the space for storage. But having running water is great! he adds. He also enjoys the proximity to the school s gas kilns and being around other makers. Although they ve shared a studio at times, Truckle and Sagisaka enjoy having their individual spaces. As Truckle puts it, When we were sharing a studio, I could never find my tools! Also, we both feel that it s healthy to spend time apart. Nevertheless, despite the focus that having separate spaces allows (not to mention that all of the tools 32 november

35 Richard Truckle Tokoname, Japan Article by Lucie Brisson stay where each one left it last), they still influence each other and sometimes collaborate on pieces, with Truckle throwing and Sagisaka decorating and glazing. Their ideas often echo through each other s work. Sagisaka: I was always in love with European slipware and used those techniques on my Japanese pots. When I met Richard, I learned how to make footless plates and salt pigs (salt cellars), and consequently those shapes became mine too. Ideally, the couple would like to work from home in separate but adjacent studios so that they wouldn t have to transport pots and glaze buckets from place to place for firings. Daily Routine Truckle and Sagisaka explain their routine this way: We re in the studio seven days a week for at least a few hours more when we are getting ready for a large show or are close to firing the wood kiln. Working in the morning works best for both of us. We always have lunch at home together. Truckle tries to do side jobs in the afternoon instead of making or glazing work. This includes mixing glazes or reclaiming clay, and any other work that requires less concentration and momentum. Because Sagisaka s studio is at home, and the gallery is also there, maintaining focus can be difficult. She explains, It can be hard to get work done because of the demands of the gallery. We really need a CLOSED sign to hang at the gate! I would love to be able to work without interruption sometimes. Despite this, both know that having the gallery on site has helped them to support themselves. Selling Work Truckle explains that selling in this way, through their own gallery, has its ups and downs, People used to queue outside our gallery, but business started to slow down around 2006 because of the economic downturn and changing tastes. People seemed to be looking for items that came more from the world of design rather than craft. But we ve always gotten a great response from customers to the fact november

36 that our ware shows Japanese and European influence in a way that s unique to the Sampomichi studios. Our best marketing aid was our dog Pooh. She would sit in front of our gallery and literally bring people in! Currently, half of their pots are sold from home. The rest are sold in a couple of large annual exhibitions in galleries in Nagoya and Tokyo. Sagisaka explains the strong cultural attachment to handmade ceramics: Japanese people still have a deep connection to tradition. The seasons are important, and the pieces must reflect that. We keep flower arrangements in vases (and the vases and arrangements reflect the time of year). Small details matter. They have tried to sell work online, and although that wasn t especially successful, their website helps people learn about their work, and to find the physical gallery. They explain, In the gallery, people spend ages carefully choosing pots. Nothing can replace the face-to-face interaction between maker and customer. Sagisaka constantly updates records of visitors and buyers and sends invitations to their mailing list for upcoming shows as well as writing thank-you cards to people who buy work. We use a lot of stamps, she laughs, but keeping good relationships with our customers is crucial. Paying Dues (and Bills) Both Sagisaka and Truckle teach English to supplement their income, because as they explain, Right now, it s hard to sell enough pots to live on, even in Japan. Sagisaka teaches children at home three hours a week. Truckle is employed part time in a primary school. I ve always taught English one way or another since I came to Japan, and the school is flexible in terms of how I organize my hours. Truckle also qualifies for a UK pension thanks to fifteen years working at various potteries in England. Body, Mind, and Inspiration To keep his body in shape, Truckle says, Well I walk the dog! I have knee and back pains, so I am careful and use a belt for my back when I lift boxes or pack the kiln. For inspiration, he browses through the books on Asian pottery in the city library. I draw constant inspiration from history, he explains, and I m an avid reader but have never tried audio books in the studio. I think they might be too distracting. Sagisaka does 20 minutes of Taï-Chi every morning. It helps me get physically and mentally ready to work, she notes. For inspiration she looks to nature and ancient shapes. I remember going to the Vic- 34 november

37 toria and Albert Museum in London and looking at European objects, lots of different ones, not only pots, she explains. Shapes seem to soak into me and eventually reappear in my own style. Crossroads Both Truckle and Sagisaka believe that they are standing at a crossroads. We recently tried to move to France and set up a studio, but it didn t work out. We felt too isolated, and the English galleries we had counted on to sell our work were having a hard time financially. It took moving halfway across the world to realize that Tokoname was actually the best place for us. Loyal customers are happy to see us back luckily we found a house a couple hundred meters from our previous one. Now we feel the need to change the way we work. Because of our training (Harrow Studio Pottery Course in England for Truckle, and a year and a half apprenticeship with a master in Kyoto for Sagisaka) we re used to working in series, but we ve been thinking lately about making fewer pots and more one-off pieces. We d love to travel for inspiration. It looks like there s a lot of potting energy in the US at the moment. We d like to visit and feel it for ourselves! Unfortunately we ll soon have to take our wood-kiln down, they explain. We built it in 2005 in a field about 30 km away. It s a cross between an Olsen Fast fire and an anagama, and we ve fired it over 20 times. But now the farmer is handing over the land to his son, who is not keen on the kiln. We d like to build another one, smaller, closer to our studios, easier to use, perhaps some kind of train kiln. We love wood-firing and want to continue with it, but we haven t found a suitable location yet. Meanwhile, we ll use this as an opportunity to play with saggars in the gas kiln. No doubt that will affect our work in ways we can t foresee. Most Important Lesson Truckle s advice to others who are considering this as a career comes from his experience adopting to different circumstances: To survive as a potter, be flexible aware of what the public is looking for and the changes in those trends and keep your standards high. Sagisaka adds, It is also important to keep a harmonious connection with nature and let it influence you. Always take time to get into the right mental space before going to the studio. Go to the digital version of this issue at to see more of Mieko Sagisaka s and Richard Truckle s work. november

38 Stepping Out Through the in Door by Sam Chung 1 36 november

39 2 3 4 Every artist faces doors of opportunity that open up when least expected, usually when you are fully absorbed in your work. When you realize that there is the potential to see a whole new world, should you step beyond that door? For most of us, the idea of moving our work in a new direction can be both terrifying and exhilarating. The thrill of the new is balanced by the inclination to be cautious. We re plagued by all those neurotic questions that are really just speaking to our egos: What if I veer off into some obscure point of no return? What if I completely embarrass myself? What will my audience think? Will I even have an audience for this work? Next to discovering a good idea in the first place, one of the hardest challenges is deciding to move beyond a good idea so it can evolve into something else. As my first ceramics professor Ron Gallas would always say, Sammy, you don t know if you don t go! How often and when you decide to make a shift in your work seems to be based on personality, life experience, temperament, and threshold for change. Moving to a new city or traveling always seems to have a jarring effect on one s creative life; it always feels a bit strange trying to make your former, familiar work in a new, unfamiliar setting. I was lucky enough to receive a summer travel fellowship after my second year of graduate school, and traveled to India for seven weeks. I visited numerous historical sites, and became enamored with architecture from the Mughal Empire. Being around those buildings was like being transported to an exotic, otherworldly kingdom. I became interested in the tangential relationships between pottery and architecture and their shared goals of creating form and space for a utilitarian purpose. So, upon returning from India, I began to appropriate the design motifs of Mughal architecture as a way to revisit my memory of those places. I also shifted my process toward using template-based slab construction to reference the architecture. This work evolved for five to six years until I felt that the Indian references started to feel too distant and I was ready to move on from this idea. I recognized this awareness for architecture via travel, and it became a way for me to expand my work in other directions. The ideas that fueled my pottery forms thereafter started from a more experiential source and were informed by the distinctive architecture I observed in subsequent travel domestically and abroad. I explored pottery forms inspired by things ranging from historical kilns in China to barn sheds in Ireland, while continuing to develop my template-based slab-construction process. After moving to Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, about seven years ago, I could feel the impulse to start a new body of work. It was also, quite frankly, very unsettling because while I felt it was time for a fresh start, I had no idea where I would take my work. Most of my work up to this point was soda fired. I experimented with various colored matte glazes and discovered a complexity to the colors that I could achieve by soda firing with 1 1½ pounds of soda ash. The glazes created a hazy atmosphere on the pots surfaces that served as a nice backdrop to the dream-like reference of my memory. While my forms changed over the years, 1 Cloud Bottle Couple, 11 in. (28 cm) in height, porcelain, glaze, china paint, Ewer, 7 in. (18 cm) in height, soda-fired porcelain, Pitcher, 11 in. (28 cm) in height, soda-fired porcelain, Ewer, 8 in. (20 cm) in height, soda-fired porcelain, Sam Chung working in the studio at the Archie Bray Foundation, Photo: Rachel Hicks recipe 40 process november

40 my firing process remained the same. I think this speaks to the power and seduction of the ceramic process. This seems to be an inherent tendency when working with a material like clay. I had a natural desire to master soda firing, but it also became an addicting default firing process without considering its relevance to new forms and ideas. During my first year in Arizona, I participated in a collaborative project with five other potters organized by the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We were tasked with making work for each other to glaze. Not only was it fascinating to see the variety of results, but it also gave me an outside view of what my work could be. The graphic decal images that Andy Brayman created on the surfaces of my forms pushed me over the edge, and I knew that a new palette was in order. At the time, I was still quite invested in soda firing, but I felt like I had worn the same shirt for a dozen years and needed a wardrobe change. I altered my glaze palette toward strong, monochromatic colors and began to experiment with china painting. After spending a few hours absorbed in painting my first lines on a pot, I was hooked. China painting became an incredible new glazing option that allowed me to control color and line in a deliberate way. It was like having access to an analog version of Adobe Photoshop. Drawing Connections As artists, we often try to connect the dots to draw relationships between disparate ideas and visual information. Since my visit to India years ago, I have always loved the poetic line quality of Islamic calligraphy, and likewise, the bold and vibrant colors of street art or graffiti. I discovered a quality in my line work that was reminiscent of these script styles. After researching both forms of script, I found some uncanny similarities in their stylizations, as if they were siblings from different eras. I became interested in the new story this unlikely pairing of styles, one from the past one from the present, could tell. I explored this for a little less than a year before exhibiting the work for the first time in a small group show. Although nothing sold from the show, I forged ahead because I knew there was a lot more to explore and I continued developing this work for about two more years. 6 7 Place/Setting, installation shot, 12 ft (3.5 m) in length, porcelain, birch platform, at Sam Chung; Place/Setting, Jane Hartsook Gallery, Greenwich House Pottery, New York, New York, Teapot (Calligraphic/Graffiti), 9 in. (23 cm) in length, porcelain, glaze, china paint, Cloud Vase, 13 in. (33 cm) in length, porcelain, glaze, china paint, Cloud Bottle, 14 in. (35 cm) in length, porcelain, glaze, china paint, november

41 Eventually, I stumbled upon a book of Korean cloud motifs. The first thing that struck me was how much the shapes resembled the forms I was making at the time. I also responded to the fact that these motifs had a connection to my own ethnic ancestry. So, I sketched many variations of these cloud forms, which then became the side profiles of templates for teapots. This set off a new direction for a number of other pots using my same slab-construction method. At some point, I wanted to do more than simply transcribe these cloud motifs into templates for forms, so I decided to incorporate the motifs onto traditional Korean pottery forms. In this way, the motifs were further reinforced by their cultural source. I also let go of my familiar slab-construction process, which actually felt liberating. I became reacquainted with the freedom of wheel throwing and altering these forms, which, like my china painting, was much more improvisational. The thrill of the unknown was definitely revitalizing as was working with forms that had more of a personal and historical connection. Scaling Up The Cloud Bottles became the inspiration for a large installation titled Place/Setting in 2011 at Greenwich House Pottery in New York. The representation of clouds put my works into a cultural and geographical framework and it made me think of placing them in the context of a physical landscape. I imagined a dinner table on which I would pair my cloud bottles with organically contoured plates and bowls stacked within each other to reference topography. During this project, it became evident that I was inspired by both Korean and Scandinavian aesthetics, via the bottles and plate shapes respectively. I spent several months planning the layout with the individual pieces, doing a number of sketches, making prototypes using foam molds, and creating a full-scale, paper mockup on my dining room floor. While it was a challenge to work at this large scale, working outside of my normal processes was refreshing. Narrowing the Focus I have stepped away from installation work, and am focusing back on traditional Korean bottle forms, particularly the rice-bale bottle forms from the Joseon Dynasty. These bottles came out of further research into traditional Korean forms. There is a quirkiness about these bottles that I find endearing, as if the pots are being given a second life by being turned on their sides. It makes me think about my role as a maker and my responsibility to tell a new story with an existing language. Taking Chances When it comes to making transitions, you sometimes have to trust your gut. If something is calling you, answer the call. Without taking chances, you may lose a great new direction in your work. We are all working along a continuum and aspects of our ideas and processes tend to bleed into one another. Transitions may be easy to see in retrospect, but your work is living, breathing, and evolving. Let it grow! Check out the digital version of this issue at to read an article on Sam Chung written by Glen R. Brown from the March 2003 issue of Ceramics Monthly. 10 Architecture/ Soda-fired vessels, Northern Michigan University, Associate Professor Calligraphic/Graffiti, Arizona State University, Assistant Professor Sam Chung time line Present Soda-fired vessels, Arizona State University, Graduate Student Exquisite Pots: Six Degrees of Collaboration, Northern Clay Center Cloud Series, Arizona State University, Associate Professor november

42 Monthly Method Cloud Vase by Sam Chung My current work is wheel-thrown porcelain, which is then cut, altered, and assembled from parts. The cloud shapes are lightly sketched onto the leather-hard-clay surface with a pointed, pencil-like tool. This part is quite improvisational and one of the parts I enjoy most about the making process. Once the cloud contours are laid out, I cut into the wall of the pot along some of the contours and pull the cut portion of the clay wall away from the form so it projects away from the form (1). The resulting gap is filled with a slab piece that is trimmed until it fits the opening (2) and then attached (3). The seam against the pot is blended with a coil of soft clay (4). This process is repeated throughout the form until the projecting contours are distributed around the pot. After the pot reaches a firm leather-hard stage, I refine the edges with a metal rib (5). Once the pot is bone dry, I bisque fire the work to cone 06 and then line the inside of the pot with a cone 10 clear glaze. I then do a high-fire bisque to cone 10 in a reduced atmosphere. Afterward, I spray on a cone 6 commercial clear glaze when the pot is still warm, which helps evaporate some of the water from the glaze so it adheres to the surface, then I reload it into an electric kiln and fire it to cone 6. This may sound backward but it resolved a crazing issue I was having with my glaze. It also allowed me to patch any small cracks in the clay that may have resulted during the cone 10 firing. Once the piece comes out of the cone 6 glaze firing, it is ready for china painting. I sketch out what and where I want to paint onto the pot with a wax pencil (6). I usually start with my black line work first. I mix black china paint with an oil medium until it is thin enough to brush on smoothly, yet thick enough so the painted line is not translucent. The lines are painted with a soft sable liner brush (7). Once the line work is painted, I clean the edges with small cut-up pieces of make-up sponges (8). I then fire this black coat to get the layout established. My china paint firings usually take about 3 4 hours to reach cone 017 and I fire the pieces after each application of china paint. I apply solid blocks of color by dabbing on the china paint with a sponge. I usually need to apply between 2 4 coats to develop an opacity with color After cutting into the wall of the pot, pull the cut portion of the clay wall away from the form. 2 Cut a slab piece to fill the gap. Score and slip both the pot and the slab. 3 Firmly press the fitted slab into place. 4 Use a soft clay coil to blend the seam between the pot and the slab. 5 Refine the edge of the pot with a metal rib once it reaches a firm leather-hard stage. 6 After the pot comes out of the cone 6 glaze firing, use a wax pencil to sketch lines for china painting. 7 Use a soft sable liner brush to brush on china paint. 8 Clean up the edges of the lines with cut-up pieces of make-up sponges. 9 After the lines are cleaned up, the piece is ready to be fired to cone 017. Repeat the process for each application of china paint. the author Sam Chung is an Associate Professor at the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. To see more of his work, visit Follow Chung on 40 november

43 Return to Earth Ceramic Sculpture of Fontana, Melotti, Miró, Noguchi, and Picasso By Diana Lyn Roberts 1 2 Last spring, Texas was abuzz with ceramic sculpture. The 17thcentury works of Bernini: Sculpting in Clay were on view at the Kimbell Art Museum, the contemporary Ken Price Sculpture: A Retrospective was at the Nasher Sculpture Center, and the Dallas Museum of Art s Chagall: Beyond Color included this Modernist s forays into ceramics in the 1950s. To commemorate this alignment of clay-centric museum shows, the online arts journal, Glasstire, published Clay Conversation ( a discussion between the three Texas curators involved in the projects, on the evolution of clay as a sculptural medium over the past four centuries. While the Nasher s Chief Curator, Jed Morse, weighed in on the topic at hand, he was busy putting together another exhibition that adds considerable depth and complexity to conventional notions about the genesis of modern ceramic sculpture. Return to Earth: Ceramic Sculpture of Fontana, Melotti, Miró, Noguchi, november

44 3 and Picasso , took an ambitious and clear-headed look at how and why these titans of Modernism adopted clay as a sculptural medium, what it meant in terms of rebuilding both society and personal aesthetics in the postwar context, and the legacy they created for later sculptors who even more radically altered the perception of clay as a viable medium for modern sculpture. Drawing on numerous European and US collections, Morse s thoughtful selection of over 75 works revealed both familiar and lesser-known aspects of these five artists focused engagement with clay. Lucio Fontana s spare, familiar Spatial Concept works from the 1950s their smooth, matte surfaces interrupted variously by slits, holes, or large interior spaces scooped out by hand were shown alongside a group of lesser-known baroque figurative works from the 1940s. These coarsely modeled, expressionistic figures recall Bernini s dynamic, quickly sketched studies of expressive forms in motion, except for the thick, layered, high-gloss and metallic glazes employed by Fontana in distinctly modern ways. Works like Battle (1947), Harlequin (1948), and the stunning, large-scale The Warrior (1949), are so loosely formed and heavily glazed that they appear to be simultaneously coalescing and melting before your eyes precisely the transcendence of static form and the synthesis of all the physical elements: color, sound, movement, time, space that formed the core of Fontana s Spatialist theories, which drove all of his influential later work until his death in Herein lies the crux of Morse s curatorial vision: while it s widely known that these artists worked in clay, not much attention has been paid to the depth of their engagement or how, especially in retrospect, they paved the way for later artists more prominently identified with Modern ceramic sculpture. As such, Morse s exhibition and the accompanying catalog make invaluable contributions to the study of ceramics within the context of Modernism, clay traditions, and contemporary fine art practice, while acknowledging the nearly metaphysical, transcendent quality of the material as a generative aesthetic force. 4 1 Isamu Noguchi's Even the Centipede, 13 ft. 9 in. (4.2 m) in height, Kasama red stoneware, wood pole, hemp cord, Courtesy: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, A. Conger Goodyear Fund. Photo: The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, New York. 2 Isamu Noguchi's The Policeman, in. (34 cm) in height, Seto stoneware, Courtesy of The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. Photo: The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum. 3 Pablo Picasso s Head in the Shape of a Pumpkin (Visage citrouille), in. (39 cm) in height, white earthenware, assembled, wax resist, painted with glaze, c Private Collection 2013 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Courtesy of the lender. 4 Pablo Picasso s Woman Standing (Femme debout), , in. (28 cm) in height, India ink on terracotta sculpture by Henri Laurens, Private collection, courtesy of Ideal Art Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Reto Rodolfo Pedrini Photography. 42 november

45 The nature of each artist s ceramic pursuits was unique, but the correspondences are significant. All were established practitioners of early 20th-century Modernism by the time they took up working with clay in earnest. Most worked with professional ceramic artists at various points, but each adapted traditional techniques liberally to meet his own artistic and philosophical needs. In each case, this included a re-grounding of personal, cultural, and political identity following the upheavals and displacements of World War II. Morse s premise that the immediacy and primacy of clay, dug literally from the earth, offered both a return to elemental principles and a means of defining new directions is amply explored in the catalog s four scholarly essays, and fully substantiated by the vigorous physicality and raw aesthetic inquiry evident in the selected works. In the middle of the museum s entrance hall, Joan Miró s massive earthenware Goddess (1963), standing over six feet tall, held court in all her primeval, lumpy glory, looking like a primordial pitch-covered earth mound in the pristine surroundings of the Nasher s blonde wood floors and limestone walls, all bathed in soft bright light flooding in from glass curtain walls at either end of the entry and exhibition halls. As with much of the Catalan master s oeuvre, this work seems like a visitor from another realm, a sentinel at the periphery of human consciousness. Just inside the main gallery, Isamu Noguchi s stark, monumental Even the Centipede (1952) confronted the viewer, as if to signal with its modular dynamism the multiple directions each artist would take with clay as his medium. To the left, with an almost magnetic pull, a full half of the gallery was taken up with the panoply of works by Miró, with two of the Nasher s monumental Miró bronzes visible in the sculpture garden outside. To the right, Noguchi and Picasso filled the rest of the large rectangular space, separated by judiciously placed white walls and pedestals. The Italians, Fausto Melotti and Lucio Fontana, shared the subterranean and more intimate though equally pristine downstairs gallery. Each of these artists adopted a very personal, intimate relationship with the aesthetic possibilities and connotations of clay itself. The spare, mostly unglazed, streamlined forms of the Japanese-American Noguchi reveal both his decidedly modern conceptions about significant form and truth to materials, and a far more primal exploration of archaic Japanese form a sort of formalized summation of his unresolved relationship to his bi-racial heritage, which became particularly acute in the aftermath of World War II. Picasso, perpetually comfortable in his own skin and always confident of his artistic vision, takes a more playful approach and, according to contributing author Dakin Hart, exploits the traditional figurative and functional forms of clay even as he turns them (sometimes literally) on their heads, always in search of a freer, almost childlike vivacity in his working process and in his easy abolition of the boundary between his art and everyday life. As Hart states, he was concerned with how to move painting from the walls into the world, from a thing that you look at into a thing that you live and interact with. The playful side of this equation is evident in works like Head in the Shape of a Pumpkin (1953), Fish on a Sheet of Newspaper (1957), and Tripod (1951). Yet Picasso s notorious (and largely justified) artistic ego was tempered by a sincere social conscience. As Hart points out, Picasso was one of the most recognized artist celebrities in the world at the time, and 5 Lucio Fontana s The Warrior (Il Guerriero), 3½ ft. (1.1 m) in height, polychrome ceramic, Collection Karsten Greve Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Saša Fuis, Köln. 6 Lucio Fontana s Spatial Concept (Concetto spaziale), in. (25 cm) painted terra cotta, Collection Karsten Greve Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Saša Fuis, Köln november

46 was fully aware that his work with local craftsmen at the Madoura Pottery would revitalize the economy of a declining, centuries-old French potting village, while tapping into a proletarian craft tradition that fitted his social concerns. A more subtle reminder of Picasso s genius, and the contingency all these artists created between tradition and Modernism, is invoked by one of the more quietly brilliant, subversive works in the show: the Standing Woman, originally crafted in terra cotta by Henri Laurens in 1921, and later purchased and altered by Picasso in with India ink. Calling it an act of threedimensional vandalism graffiti as corrective, Hart clarifies the complexity of the act: Every geometricizing fold and bulge Laurens introduced to stylize the woman s form, to make it Cubist, Picasso has subsumed in flattening planes of black ink...constructed using visual tropes Laurens borrowed from Picasso s painting, Picasso returned to painting, by replacing modeling with drawing, and relief with graphic contrasts, and by making her into a more dynamically three-dimensional seeming, genuinely Cubist woman. The Italians, too, invoked utopian ideals about clay. As Marin R. Sullivan argues, the peculiar situation in postwar Italy namely, a tradition of clay as fine art medium from Etruscan times to the Renaissance and beyond, paired with the fact that Mussolini s brand of fascism was not, as elsewhere, inimical to Modern art allowed Melotti and Fontana to use their experience with industrial ceramics to participate in the postwar Italian miracle of modernization and economic resurgence. Both artists contributed to Modern architectural and industrial design projects, while staying true to their proletarian roots with more personal sculptural pursuits. Melotti s modular wall units, such as Circles ( ) and other works, contrast with more narrative postwar urban landscapes like Postwar Period (1946) and The Grand Canal (1963), and deeply humanistic works like Lament Over Dead Heroes (1961) and Theater (1950). For all the intensity with which the Italians pursued ceramics, both moved to other media in the later postwar years. Still, as Sullivan states, the works of Melotti and Fontana attest to the achievements of postwar Italian artists to merge ceramics with avant-garde practice, concluding that, In the 1940s and 1950s, clay provided something tangible and familiar in a moment that must have felt both exhilaratingly wide open and terrifyingly uncertain. The notion of clay as physical connection to place and culture runs throughout the show. Noguchi s ceramic production was limited to his extended stays in postwar Japan, working both on his own and with revered craftsmen, using named regional clays with specific historical and geographical connotations. Modeling much of his work on Japanese forms, concepts, or folklore, Noguchi stated of this land barely finding its way out of the debris of war, that, when all the possibilities of modern technologies are lost, one returns once more to basic things, to basic materials, to basic thoughts. One starts all over again Daruma (1952), for example, is an abstraction based on archaic Haniwa tomb figures, while Pretty Girl, Ghost, and Big Boy (all 1952) draw from Japanese folklore, and The Policeman (1950) and Large Square Vase (1952) are abstractions of everyday things. Miró stands out as the most adventurous and fluid in terms of adapting the material to his versatile artistic vision. He capitalized on the plasticity of clay as a primal sculptural medium, taking full advantage of the range of scale and surface quality it affords. He played with traditional forms, adorning the surface of works like Vase ( ) with his distinctive pictographic imagery, or subverting function with his Antiplate (1956). Working in miniature and monumental scale, he was taken with clay s primal qualities and associations, ranging from prehistoric-looking miniature rocks like Flat Pebble and Oval Pebble (both 1956), to the larger burnished and scored Mammoth Egg (1956) and the enigmatic Stone (1955) and Double-Sided Plaque (1945), suggesting ancient markers. 7 7 Fausto Melotti s Circles (Cerchi), in. (42 cm) in height, glazed ceramic, nylon, brass, Private Collection. Photo: Martino Mascherpa. 8 Fausto Melotti s, Postwar Period (Dopoguerra), in. (93 cm) in length, painted clay, Courtesy Marta Melotti. Archivio Fausto Melotti, Milan. Photo: Courtesu Archivio Fausto Melotti, Milan november

47 9 Joan Miró and Josep Llorens Artigas Goddess (Déesse), 6 ft. (1.8 m) in height, earthenware, Collection Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence Successió Miró/ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Claude Germain. 10 Joan Miró and Josep Llorens Artigas Mammoth Egg (Œuf de mammouth), 23 in. (60 cm) in height, ceramic, Collection Fondation Marguerite et Aimé Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence Successió Miró/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Claude Germain. 11 Joan Miró and Josep Llorens Artigas Antiplate (Antiplat), 14½ in. (36.8 cm) in diameter, earthenware, Collection of Rowland Weinstein, Courtesy Weinstein Gallery, San Francisco Successió Miró/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Nicholas Pishvanov. Morse points out that Miró s embrace of chance was standard procedure, allied to his prior engagement with Surrealism, assemblage, and his ongoing desire to find a more direct, immediate way to give form to his ideas, unfettered by conventional notions of skill. Facilitated by the technical and aesthetic collaboration of the ceramic artists Josep Llorens Artigas and Joan Gardy Artigas, Miró reveled in the unpredictability of glazes and enamels, the malleability of the clay itself, and its capacity to translate his typically imprecise and implicitly organic forms. In all of Miró s work there is something primal and elemental, and his ceramic works are closely allied to his sculptures in other media: the larger than life-size Ironing Board (1956) and Man and Woman (1962) are classic examples of his mixing of materials, unexpected scale, and his use of repeated, identifiable visual symbols that are uniquely his, regardless of media. Clay offered the formal flexibility and primal connotations as well as a direct, tactile connection with the earth that suited his need to feel grounded and linked to a specific place and time following the war and, in a larger sense, a fundamental connection to the cosmos. Unfortunately, the Nasher was the sole venue for this significant exhibition. As the primary document of the event, the catalog is an exceptionally good substitute, with excellent reproductions of all the objects, presented in a clean and logical layout. The four essays by Jed Morse, Catherine Craft, Dakin Hart, and Marin R. Sullivan offer invaluable contributions to the literature on Modernism, the postwar context, and the use of clay as a sculptural medium. They also serve as a model of scholarly art historical insight and exposition, written in refreshingly accessible, straightforward prose, striking a rare balance between solid scholarship, critical interpretation, and clear historical narrative. For those who missed Return to Earth at the Nasher, the catalog should be required reading (and viewing) for anyone who has ever struggled with the distinction between art and craft, tradition and modernity, or intuition and intellect either in theory or in the studio. 9 the author Diana Lyn Roberts is a freelance arts writer, curator, and art historian living in San Antonio, Texas. All quotes from the Exhibition Catalogue, Return to Earth: Ceramic Sculpture of Fontana, Melotti, Miró, Noguchi, and Picasso , Jed Morse, with contributions by Catherine Craft, Dakin Hart, Marin R. Sullivan. Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, Texas, november

48 Together Tying it All by Margaret Bohls 1 I am often torn between the need to be excited and engaged, which happens when I am working on something new, and the pressure (from my conscience) to force myself to stick with a particular body of work in order to give it more depth and resolution. I try to find a balance between following inspiration, and doing the mental labor necessary to fully develop my work. Perhaps because I am an educator, and I live in an environment of constant change and growth, I consider my work to be a process, rather than a series of finished products. Although I am often not entirely comfortable with my work, and some of it never really gets fully resolved, I usually just put it out into the world, and try not to worry about potential judgments. That is simply part of the process. Several things tie all of my work together. An interest in exploring and reinterpreting historical forms. I am interested in understanding the vernacular of certain functional forms and the way each object communicates its function. I am also interested in the ways in which this vernacular has morphed over time. A fascination with the expressive potential of process. The sculptural possibilities of each different means of forming an object are endless. I love to learn new ways of making and 46 november

49 2 3 4 glazing things, and finding out how each new process can contribute essential visual information to the piece. An obsession with creating and resolving formal problems. I am interested in creating objects or arrangements that act both as images and as objects. I am also interested in creating patterns, in both form and surface, that can also act as an image. The idea of drawing objects in space plays out in different ways in much of my work. I use repetition, line, proportion, and negative space to compose a dimensional image. A need to learn new things. I easily become bored with making the same object over and over again, and I have difficulty growing slowly within known parameters. My way of staying interested is by teaching myself something new with each new body of work. A Series of Connections To me, there are clear relationships between each of the bodies of work I have made. The larger set of content is essentially the same, but each distinct body of work also has its own specific set of aesthetic concerns and parameters within this larger arena. This larger set of concerns has grown over time and I will often later return to an older way of working with a clearer idea about what I was trying to express. 1 Flower Arrangement, 28 in. (71 cm) in height, porcelain, stoneware, metal rod, paint, Drawing #2 Condiment Set, 18 in. in height, earthenware, White Condiment Set, 14½ in. (37 cm), stoneware, Soft-Slab Whiteware Place Setting, to 8 in. (20 cm) in height, porcelain, Celadon Cruet Set, 8½ in. (22 cm) in height, porcelain, november

50 68 recipes For instance, the piece Cage from the Earthenware Sets inspired the Porcelain Gridware ( ), which inspired the Diagonal Gridware (2006 present). Each deals with the relationship between the object and the tray or holder, and each is based on the way the gridded surface defines and shapes the form. Here is another example: In the Earthenware Set, Drawing #2, I wanted to create a drawing that required one to explore the entire surface of each object in order to get a complete picture. The drawing itself is composed not only of the images on the surfaces of each piece, but also of the lines created by the construction of each pot, as well as by the profiles of the pots themselves. This idea of creating a spatial drawing came directly from looking at the Celadon series and the Whiteware series. The edges of each slab Timeline 6 7 used to build the forms create either hard and crisp or soft and flowing lines in space that essentially define each object so that it is both a form and a drawing. Another iteration of that idea is the gridded network of lines that draws each form in the Diagonal Gridware/Bumpyware ( ) Series. In graduate school, I resisted the pressure to narrow my work down, to focus. Rather, I deliberately spread out, attempting to make a chosen set of forms in as many ways as I could imagine. I then brought these disparate pieces back together into arranged groupings or Mixed Sets ( ). In part, I was trying to broaden my own aesthetic sensibilities. Later, after I started teaching, first at Sam Houston State University (SHSU), and then at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (UMN), I began developing each of these individual types of work, to flush them out into Homogenous Sets. Several of my subsequent bodies of work developed from this experimentation including the Celadon Ware ( ), the White and Black Ware ( and 2007 present), and the Earthenware Sets ( ). Several years after I moved to Minnesota, I began selling my work through the Northern Clay Center. This was my first longterm relationship with a sales gallery. I made an attempt to stick with a coherent body of functional work, partly because this created a clear identity for the work for those who bought it, and partly because I wanted to find out what would happen if I forced myself to stick with something, to see whether the work would become Mixed Sets graduate work at LSU teaching at SHSU Celadon Series teaching at UMN Porcelain Gridware teaching at UMN Homogenous Sets teaching at SHSU and UMN Soft-Slab Whiteware teaching at SHSU and UMN Earthenware Sets teaching at UMN 48 november

51 richer with continued repetition and focus on detail. The Porcelain Gridware, and then the Diagonal Gridware/Bumpyware, came out of this. I also wanted to develop my understanding of function, and of the way pots work in people s homes. I wanted to allow people to develop a relationship with my work that went beyond a single unique object. I needed to tinker with my process to create more consistency. This interest in utility eventually led me to return to the white, soft-slab ware, which was quieter, simpler, and potentially more versatile in terms of function. When I began that work, it was more about expression than utility, and it was an exercise in making quickly and gesturally without fussing over the details. When I returned to that work, I wanted to keep the fresh quality of the pots, but I also wanted it to function well. When I left Minnesota three years ago, I was making both of these bodies of work, the Bumpyware and the White and Black Ware. In my studio practice, each acted as a counterpoint to the other; one being time consuming and detail oriented, while the other is quickly made and simple. Each requires a very different kind of focus. For some time, I have made and sold both of these kinds of work and usually each gallery likes to have only one of these types of ware, rather than both. Some galleries have initially tried to sell both bodies of work, and have eventually chosen the one that sells better in their region. In 2011, I moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, to begin teaching at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). I dearly love my new job at UNL, but it rarely affords me long periods of uninterrupted time in the studio. This is really what is required to make functional pots. My studio practice has changed, and frankly my interest in making strictly functional pottery has waned a little after ten or so years of focusing on that. So I have been looking for ways to make larger, more sculptural pieces that I can work on in and around all of my other duties. The result so far has been the Modernist Series, which goes back in some ways to my earlier work (i.e. White Condiment Set from 1997), but is based on new historical inspirations. I have also begun a new series with the working title Floral Series. The Modernist Sets are oversized, 6 Cage Cruet Set, earthenware, 12 in. (30 cm) in height, Porcelain Gridware, Pink Cruet Set, 7 in. (18 cm), porcelain, Diagonal Gridware/Bumpyware, Blue Leaf Vase,11½ in. (29 cm) in height, porcelain and earthenware, White and Black Ware (continuation of Soft-Slab Whiteware) teaching at UMN and UNL 2007 present Modernist Sets teaching at UNL 2013 present 2006 present Diagonal Gridware/Bumpyware teaching at UMN and UNL 2014 present Floral Series teaching at UNL november

52 sculptural versions of European Early-, and Mid-Century Modernist tea and coffee sets from Britain and Europe. Flower Arrangement is, in part, about the use of pattern in the decorative object. I am layering repeated imagery that creates two- and three-dimensional patterns. Perhaps this way of working is unusual, especially for a potter, but it seems to work for me. It allows me to play, to experiment, and to teach myself new things. This is what keeps me interested and engaged in my work. 9 Bumpyware Green Leaf place setting, to 12 in. (30 cm) in height, porcelain, White and Blackware Black Espresso Set, 7½ in. (19 cm) in height, porcelain, 2007 present. 11 Modernist Bronze Tea and Coffee Set, 22 in. (56 cm) in diameter, porcelain, stoneware, (Con)Current Series Diagonal Gridware/Bumpyware: This is a body of decorative yet functional pottery that I began making in 2006 and continue to develop. These pieces are handbuilt using porcelain slabs that are highly textured, creating a structured surface from which the form language evolves. These pieces have complex glaze surfaces that are designed to respond to and enhance their exaggerated surface texture. Many of these pieces are placed in and on earthenware (and sometimes stoneware), trays, trivets and caddies. The visual repetition of surface and form in this work reflects my interest in European porcelain of the 17th and 18th centuries, most of which was made in large, elaborate sets of ware for specific domestic rituals, like the serving of tea or dinner, or the arrangement and display of flowers. White and Black Ware: This is a body of simple utilitarian pottery that I started working on from and returned to in 2007 as a deliberate counterpoint to the above mentioned, much more elaborate, Bumpyware. This work is simply made using smooth porcelain slabs. The edges of these slabs are left visible and create a simple network of lines that draw the forms in space. The glaze palette is deliberately monochromatic and satin or matte in texture in order to allow the simple forms and edges, and the shadows they create, to be clearly seen and read. Modernist Sets: This new body of work started in 2013 and consists of sculptural representations of utilitarian forms arranged on, and framed by, large stoneware trays. The forms are largely based on European, Modernist-era silver tea, coffee, and chocolate sets. My work, like its Modern inspirations, is quite formalist and the actual function of this ware is vestigial. My interest is in the abstraction and repetition of forms and visual motifs, and in the still-life-like arrangement of these forms. Unlike my historical inspirations, in my Modernist pieces I place a deliberate emphasis on process and material. The forms are pinched up from moist clay and the glazes are chosen and applied to emphasize their substance and character. Floral Series: This is continuing investigation of more sculptural arrangements of ceramic forms and series of dimensional tile pieces. This work is based in part on an interest in botanical illustration, and on the historical use of floral abstraction as both pattern and image on ceramic forms from both Europe and Asia. This work is largely still in progress. I hope to complete several more pieces in the author Margaret Bohls is a professor of ceramics at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. To learn more, visit Check out the digital version of this issue at to read an article on Margaret Bohls written by Glen R. Brown from the April 2005 issue of Ceramics Monthly. 50 november

53 Terra Ignis Miquel Barceló s Ceramics at Lisbon s Museu Nacional do Azulejo, with Curator Marta Sierra by Bryan K. Alexander The Spanish painter Miquel Barceló displayed his ceramic work at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo ( in the fall of The museum seemed an unlikely venue for Barceló s irreverent, low-fired and lo-fi terra-cotta explorations. The museum occupies the former Madre de Deus convent, whose azulejo walls, evocative courtyards, and Baroque chapel stand as Barceló s antithesis. His waist-high jars, with their sketched drawings in slip, and their cracked vessel walls, squatted like refuse among the museum s finely glazed blue tiles and symmetrically colonnaded corridors. In the exhibition catalog, Barceló says he is not really a ceramist but a terra-cotta sculptor, and for many years he spent months at a time in rural Mali, West Africa, whose living terra-cotta traditions and desert environment nourished him. In the Lisbon exhibit, the viewer could see the West African influence, for example, in the vessel showing the image of an ancient woman, a mask/ pot perched on the vessel rim to represent the ancient head. This woman is scratched onto the vessel s façade with energetic marks, forming perhaps a self-portrait of a woman consumed with the daily work of securing 1 food and shelter, and working out her destiny through scoring on clay surfaces. As in many of Barceló s paintings, he uses the clay as a medium for his forceful exploration of the existential problems of elemental life. By elemental I mean life in its essence, apart from complex social relations, modern technology, and the symbols and categories 2 november

54 Cefalòpodes, 4½ ft. (1.4 m) in height, earthenware, manganese, white engobe, Portes Finestres, 4 ft. (1.2 m) in height, earthenware, manganese, Dogon, 5 ft. (1.5 m) in height, earthenware, manganese, Cariàtides, 4½ ft. (1.4 m) in height, earthenware, manganese, Portes Finestres, 4 ft. (1.2 m) in height, earthenware, manganese, Pintor com a buda, 4½ ft. (1.4 m) in height, earthenware, manganese, white engobe, Bleda, 4½ ft. (1.4 m) in height, earthenware, manganese, Animals de Cap Fort, 5 ft.(1.5 m) in height, earthenware, white engobe, of elevated culture. Barceló takes the large, straight-walled storage jar and rides it like a donkey to his borderland destinations. On the vessel surfaces he sketches prey animals. Around vessel rims he attaches masks and clay grids. The fine details are not elegant, and the terra-cotta structures are not meant to hold anything but ideas, emotions, and associations that arise from the mythological plane. Barceló earned his place in European contemporary art through his paintings, which are deemed Neo-Expressionist and first gained him attention through the Documenta show in Germany in 1982, when Barceló was 25 years old. Since that time, he has gained renown in Europe and has won major commissions, including a domed ceiling at the United Nations Palace of Nations in Geneva, and the ceramic walls of a chapel in the Cathedral of Palma in Majorca, Spain, near Barceló s birthplace. Barceló has said he did not take up ceramics seriously until the 1990s. His explorations are not of the primitive in the sense of the untrained. Rather, they are the work of one seeking the making of meaning out of the supplies most readily given. He prefers the roughness of fired clay on his surfaces, and therefore glazes are absent. His manipulations of the clay require physical force informed by an imagination saturated in mortality and its significance, and to creation and the sources of human artistry. Barceló s vessel decorations 52 november

55 7 8 9 include animals, and one finds they are the animals most readily viewable: the herd ungulates, or the village monkeys. The nocturnal lion, or even a raptor, makes no appearance. Barceló s use of the vessel as carrier of metaphorical association resembles Peter Voulkos stacks. While Barceló has used clay as a purely sculpting medium, he returns continually to the large jar as his foundational form. He says that this form is based on jars from Spain called aufàbies used for storing salted pork bones, capers, and oil and also based on jars in Mali used to ferment and store millet beer. In many of Barceló s large jars, a clashing form adds to the informality provided by the artist s improvisational energy. That clashing form is the ceramic brick, a pre-fabricated grid that Barceló frequently places as a disrupting element in his jars walls. Perhaps these clashing bricks represent Barceló himself as the fermenter, the agent that, through a chemical reaction, initiates a process of breaking complex compounds into simpler elements. Even the elemental, unglazed jar is destined for a breaking down, and this artist loves to dwell in that imperfection. Although Barceló is not widely known in the US, he has exhibited there, and has shown two-dimensional works on canvas at the Acquavella Galleries in New York in the fall of His terra-cotta sculptures, informed by multi-cultural knowledge and the deepest concerns of humanity, also deserve an audience in the US. the author Bryan K. Alexander is a writer who lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and publishes AtlantaArtBlog.com. His areas of interest include commerce and art, romantic era values, and cultures in transition. november

56 Maurice Savoie Porcelain A Life with by John K. Grande 1 Presented at the newly open Maison de la Culture ( in Longueuil, Quebec, Canada, Maurice Savoie A Life with Porcelain, celebrates one of Canada s pre-eminent ceramic artists. Considered to be Canada s poet of ceramics, Maurice Savoie was consistent in his eclectic, playful approach to the degree that his work was exhibited in over 100 shows in Czechoslovakia, England, Italy, Hungary, Canada, and the US. Major exhibitions included 2 Galerie XII at Montreal s Museum of Fine Arts (1965) the Centre de Céramique Bonsecours (1986), CIRCA Gallery (1995), and Stewart Hall Art Gallery (1996). In 2004, he was awarded the prestigious Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in fine craft, the Paul-Emile Borduas Prize (2004), and the Grand Prix des Métiers d art du Quebec in 1987 and Now celebrated with this posthumous show of his life in ceramics, what becomes apparent is this artist s slow and steady brilliance in adapting the techniques of ceramics to contemporary themes. While earlier works are purer in character, it is the eternal, near mythological themes that makes his art stand out, though they border on caricature at times. Savoie s ceramics draw on world history and the human experience, using a universally accessible and joyful language. Like Viola Frey in San Francisco, Maurice Savoie reinvented the medium and gave it a new purpose. His work was full of idiosyncracies and took on hybridity, the multi-use, multi-cultural imagination of today s world. While Savoie s art has been called Surrealist, it is not as conceptual as that, more illustrative, and closer to fabulistic. The bestiary of potentially ferocious animals could have been found in ancient manuscripts, or in Jorge Luis Borges Book of Imaginary Beings (1957). Savoie discovered and uncovered a world of the imaginary, the subject of fairy tales and legends over the centuries, reinventing it. This world likewise recalls Raoul Dufy s woodcut illustra- 54 november

57 tions for Apollinaire s first book of poems The Bestiary or the Parade of Orheus (1911), for the inventive joy in the creative process. Seen within the history of porcelain, this retrospective includes a full repertoire of works ranging from a personally designed chess set to sketches and notebooks. Born in Sherbrooke, Quebec in 1930, Savoie studied with the sculptors Pierre Normandeau and Louis Archambeault starting in 1948 at the École Nationale du Meuble et de L'Ébénisterie. It was here he held one of his first solo shows in École Nationale du Meuble et de L'Ébénisterie Director Pierre Gauvreau believed that French style and culture were important for his students to learn. Artists like Savoie thus explored the French sources and styles just as Quebec s Automatiste group of painters were doing at the same time, though the influence of the New York abstract painters was ever present. Between 1949 and 1989, he continued his studies in programs at the École des Beaux-arts in Montréal, at ceramic studios in Faenza, Rome (with ceramics master Nino Caruso), Paris, and at the École Nationale d Art Décoratif in Limoges, France. As his career evolved, Savoie moved towards sculpture and wall mural commissions using ceramics as his medium. For the McGill metro station in Montréal, he produced terra-cotta wall-relief bricks with industrial ceramics company SIAL. These became columns that decorated the subway environment with natural themes in relief and the first art that was made for the Montréal subway system. He also participated in the 1967 World s Fair Expo with a screen installation at the Quebec Pavilion. Savoie s most intimate works from the early period have a cachet of truth, of a search for origins. The plates from the 1990s and early 2000s integrate archaic structures with nature-based designs along their borders. The decorative style brings a soul, an eternal resonance, as if drawn out of the winds of time, as does the calligraphic marking in relief in his white porcelain pieces. We see this even in the simplest works. As the works and decades progress, these ceramics acquire a sculptural feel, but in miniature. They describe fabulistic stories that could be about Captain Nemo, Neptune, or Poseidon. With the underwater bathyscaphes-like Carrus Novalis (2002) and Nautilus, we see vehicles propelled by the mythologies Savoie hybridizes, reinvents, and meticulously pulls together, painting and coloring the earthenware along the way. Ceramic mini-sculptures like The New Eve and Barbie s Dream are more immediately humorous, a take on life today. Collaged textures and details present resplendent women on chariots that deify consumerism s toy-laden object world. Still others like Crocodile Eating the Sun at the End of the Day have mythological beasts or whales and reinvented ships as in Bateau de Jujol (2001). Still other ceramic pieces look like platoons of sport-utility or quad vehicles made for the beaches of Ibiza, Spain. One of the best works in this 1 Fish, 25 in. (64 cm) in length, stoneware, Photo: Guy L Heureux. 2 S.U.V. 1, 14 in. (36 cm) in length, porcelain, bronze, verre et fil métallique, Photo: Pierre Gauvin. Collection Canadian Museum of Civilization. 3 The New Eve, 16½ in. (42 cm) in height, black porcelain, mixed media, Photo: Guy L Heureux. 4 Barbie s Dream, 11 in. (29 cm) in height, porcelain, stoneware, plastic, Photo: Guy L Heureux november

58 6 7 5 Tree, 23½ in. (60 cm) in height, stoneware, porcelain, copper, Photo: Guy L Heureux. 6 Nautilus, 23½ in. (60 cm) in length, porcelain, bronze, Photo: Pierre Gauvin. Collection du Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. 7 Crocodile Eating the Sun at the End of the Day, 29½ in. (75 cm) in height, porcelain, stoneware, pigments, Photo: Pierre Gauvin. Collection Ville de Pointe-Claire. show is Tree, which is so sculptural with its pure white and black elements. The black areas have words inscribed on them like a tree of knowledge, or history. A very tiny leaf in bronze sits atop the piece. Another wonderful work is Fish, from Deep blue patterns cover the exterior surface of this archaic looking, beautiful vessel. Artists who influenced Savoie included Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Jean- Paul Riopelle, and Inuit artists. One feels the influence of pre-columbian ceramics and Amlash ceramics from Iran (8th and 9th century) as well as the Imari era in Japanese ceramics. Curated by Robert Leroux, Maurice Savoie; A Life in Porcelain presents a well rounded look at Savoie s art. He used ceramics as a vehicle to explore life in all its facets, adapting archaic styles and mythological themes for the ceramic audiences in his times. 5 the author John K. Grande curated Earth Art at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario, Canada in The author of Art Nature Dialogues: Interviews With Environmental Artists (SUNY Press) and Dialogues in Diversity; Art from Marginal to Mainstream (Pari Publishing, Italy), Grande curated Kathy Venter Life at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto, Canada in november

59 Wood Wadding Firing: by Simon Levin 1 As artists who wood fire, we are more observers of phenomena than scientists who quantify and measure. We hedge our bets. We try to repeat effects while remaining open to serendipity. We have chosen a process fraught with uncontrollable variables. Our kilns are not commercially produced within exacting specifications. Our fuel source, wood, varies widely in silica, water, mineral, and alkali content, as well as species, and density. Among some of the other variables are clay bodies, loading techniques, firing range and duration, and weather and atmosphere. We struggle to test hypotheses because it is hard to control all variables and repeat firings. So rather than trying to present hard facts, this article sources information, observations, and theories from experts and innovators in the field don t be surprised if some of them contradict each other. Simon Levin Theories Wadding is a core material to all artists who fire their work in wood kilns. Wadding is the refractory material used to keep a pot from sticking to the shelf when ash melts or to keep two pots from sticking together. It is central to the process, and like most fundamental things, there are numerous complex approaches and competing theories as to what works the best. None of them are simple. There are three basic categories of wadding: fire-clay wadding, alumina wadding, and calcium wadding. All are engineered to prevent adherence to the pot, and all happen to leave distinctive marks. Fireclay and alumina wadding are made to be highly refractory, to avoid any fluxing and thus fusing with surfaces of contact. Some are also made to crumble easily after firing, allowing for easy removal. Calcium wadding is designed to dissolve and wash away after the firing. Recipes Alumina wadding: This type of wadding seems to predominate in schools and atmospheric firings where salt or soda is introduced to the kiln s atmosphere. The recipe is basically a thick kiln wash, and consists of 50% kaolin and 50% alumina hydrate. There are some variations though. Linda Christianson uses a ratio of 4 parts alumina, 1 part EPK kaolin, and 1 part old flour. The low-clay content keeps the alumina from fusing together, while the flour is an inexpensive organic material that burns away. She freezes the leftover wadding between firings so the flour won t rot. She notes that the downside of this wadding is the expense of alumina hydrate and the white marks it leaves on the surface. Kenyon Hansen, who introduces soda into his firings between cone 9 and 11 in order to erode his glazes and glassify the clay november

60 2 3 1 Simon Levin s Yellow Halo, 8 in. (20 cm) in diameter, porcelain, Avery slip, decorative fire-clay wadding mark, anagama fired. 2 Ted Adler s 50/50 whiting/plaster-of-paris cast tripods used to support vessels. 3 The resulting fired mark on the bottom of Ted Alder s vesel from the whiting/plaster-of- Paris tripod. 2 3: Photos: Lars Voltz. bodies, uses the 50/50 alumina/kaolin wadding recipe. In an effort to reduce the white wadding marks, he makes his wads as small and hard as possible; this reduces the surface area contact while still lifting the pots off the shelf. Almost everyone I spoke with who used alumina hydrate wadding was looking for an alternative, either due to the white marks it can leave or the cost of the material. Pete Pinnell suggests that the white residue is caused by alumina imbedded in the surface of the clay, with (perhaps) some migration of alumina ions during the firing. Alumina hydrate works well; it has a high melting point and tends not to fuse to either the pottery or the shelf. I found a pretty firm belief in the infallibility of the material. Thus, those who use it seem to see the white marks as a necessary evil, unwilling to try something else that might be a risk. Calcium wadding: This type of wadding developed from the long history of potters using seashells to prevent adherence. The beauty of this method is that the shells (which are made of calcium compounds), once calcined from the firing, will slowly turn to dust as they gather moisture from the air. Calcining is a process in which a material is heated below its melting temperature to cause thermal decomposition, remove organic material or induce a phase transition. When calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) is fired hot enough, the carbon dioxide is driven off and what s left is calcium oxide (quick lime or CaO). When the quick lime combines with moisture, either in the air or by saturating the lime with water, the CaO and H2O combine to make calcium hydroxide. Soaking pots in water will expedite this process and dissolve any stuck pieces of shell. The majority of the calcium carbonate won t fuse to clay. Calcium oxide had a melting temperature of 4735 F. Some of the CaO is certainly fusing with the clay and/or glaze, as CaO migrates easily in a firing, however, any CaO that sticks would do so by being chemically combined with portions of the clay/glaze, so it won t be easily visible. Any unreacted CaO on the surface would tend to november

61 react with H2O and come off. Because this material washes away, it can be used in contact with glazes, leaving a scar on the surface, but not additional material. Seashells, as opposed to fresh water shells, also contain some salt, which volatilizes and fumes locally, glazing and corroding any clays or glazes in the immediate area. When work is re-fired, it must be re-wadded in the same manner as the first time it was fired. This is because all the other surfaces have ash deposits, which will become a glaze and fuse newer wads in place. Often re-wadding is impractical, in which case seashells or calcium wadding opens new possibilities. Although they leave a small scar on ash-covered area, the residue dissolves away after the firing. Perhaps because of the land-locked nature of a lot of woodfirers, innovative potters have been making their own shells. Using a mixture of half whiting (calcium carbonate), and half plaster of Paris, shapes can be cast and saved until it s time to fire. A shell can be repeatedly pressed into a slab of clay making the recesses for the plaster casts. Tripods can also be cast using this mixture. The pointed tips of the tripod reduce the contact area with the pot. Ted Adler has been using a plaster and whiting mixture as wadding for about 10 years. In graduate school he tried using just plaster, but found that it was too hard and fused to the pots. Plaster of Paris has a melting temperature of 2200 F (1200 C), so at cone 9 the plaster fluxes and melts into the surrounding clay and shelf. By mixing plaster half and half with whiting it raises the melting temperature and makes it release easier and dissolve faster (2 3). My neighbor, Gareth Sturms uses thin cross sections of cow bones in place of wadding. He pays a certain price with some unpleasant hours with a bandsaw. Fireclay wadding: When I was in graduate school, visiting artist Kirk Mangus shared his wadding recipe: equal parts silica sand, grog, sawdust, and fireclay. The benefit of this type of wadding is that the mark it leaves is the bare clay color. The fireclay wadding acts as a resist, protecting the area underneath from ash accumulation. It leaves no residue, resulting in reactive clay colors in areas of contact. Years later, in my own pottery, I removed the grog from the recipe because of the cost and I have used this recipe for 15 years. Wadding with combustibles: The idea behind adding sawdust, flour, rice hulls, or other combustibles to the wadding is simple and seemingly sound. Soft brick is easier to crumble than hard brick, if you can make wadding that contains voids when fired, it will be easier to remove than denser materials. I have accepted this principle, but John Neely disagrees, So often, people fill wadding up with organic material to make it more friable. I think just the opposite happens; unless it is a really dry firing, the gaps left by the organic material cause the wadding to absorb ash like a sponge. Instead, John looks for larger-particle, round silica sand, like contractor s 30 mesh or larger. He mixes the sand and water in a bucket and uses just enough clay to hold it together. Application and Loading Hanging wads: To create turbulence and capture the flame path on pots, I often place wads on top of wares, or hang a ball of wadding between two cups. The wadding serves no physical purpose but as a resist to ash, and a way to highlight the narrative process of flame path (4). Wadding dams: In areas of high ash and temperature, many potters use the wadding material to create a small wall in front of the feet of their pots. Place the wadding snuggled up close but not touching these walls limits the amount of ash that will saturate the supporting wads (5). Recessed wads: Since ash runs down the vertical walls of pots at high temperatures, placing the wad a ¼ to a ½ inch inside the diameter of the foot of flat bottomed ware keeps the ash from extending down the wall of the pot onto the wad (6) november

62 9 10 Wadding lip: On the foot of my pieces, I curl the edge upward slightly making a lip (7) that encourages runny ash to pool (8), and not break over the edge and adhere to the wads. Reduce surface contact: With decorative wadding I can get a different line quality by making wads that are very round compared with wads I press tightly against the surface. I get more halos of color and information around the round wads, as they create a gradient of exposure as opposed to the clean lines of a wad that has sharp edges of contact. I think the gradient of exposure facilitates variation of ash deposits and atmosphere, leaving more rings of color. Maximize room: The edges of the pot do not need to be within the parameters of a shelf, as long as the wads are in contact and the piece is balanced. This allows you to increase shelf potential. Large trays and platters can also span multiple shelves, since the wadding levels the piece over gaps and bumps. In addition to wood firings, this technique can be used in electric and gas firings. Techniques and Tips Freezing: Flour is a common organic material added to wadding. Unfortunately, this creates wadding with a shelf life. Flour easily rots and becomes putrid. Freezing any extra, unused wadding between firings will prevent this. Upside down: Bowls and plates can be placed upside down on a post with a large wad in the center. With the post placed on the edge of the shelf, part of the bowl sticks out into the stoking aisle (9 10). As long as it is placed above the height of the stoke hole, the work is pretty safe from enthusiastic stokers. The rising flame comes from underneath the bowl, depositing a finer ash across the surface that is less likely to fuse to the wad than the heavier ash that accumulates on upright surfaces. In addition to the finer ash, atmospheric effects from the burning organic fumes released from the wood rise and interact with the clay, leaving a narrative of color and flame direction (11). Aesthetics Wadding has become integral to my process no longer a mark that must happen, but a way to capture the flame path and enhance formal elements. When Linda Christianson started firing in her own kiln, she had few shelves, so she made work that could be stacked rim to rim, giving her more height in the kiln. Wadding became a visible decorative element in her work. Though now she can afford shelves, her casserole dishes are often wadded upside down with wad marks on the rims, and much of her work has strong and generous rims that speak to their legacy of stacking. Linda was one of my teachers and as I look at the foot of my former apprentice Kenyon Hansen s pots where each of the wad marks are aligned with the ribs on the bowl I see the same logic for size, number, and placement of wad marks considered (12). Many thanks to Pete Pinnell, Linda Christianson, Kenyon Hansen, John Neely, Lars Voltz, and Ted Adler for their help with this article. the author Simon Levin is a wood-fire potter from Gresham, Wisconsin who dislikes writing about himself in the third person. He evangelizes for wood-firing everywhere, is a Fulbright Scholar, kiln builder, and writer, but foremost he loves making pottery and big hot fires. You can see more of his work at SimonLevin.com Simon Levin s bowl, 8 in. (20 cm) in diameter, porcelain, Helmar slip, fired upside down in an anagama kiln on a single fire-clay wad. 12 Kenyon Hansen s serving bowl, porcelain with silica sand and alumina wadding, Photo courtesy of the artist. 60 november

63 WEEKEND, ONE-WEEK AND TWO-WEEK WORKSHOPS 2014 INSTRUCTORS: MOLLY HATCH DIANA FAYT KENSUKE YAMADA HIROE HANAZONO JOSH DEWEESE TOM LAUERMAN LINDSAY OESTERRITTER LANA WILSON DAVID SMITH GEORGE BOWES DAVID EICHELBERGER JEREMY RANDALL CURT LACROSS JULIA GALLOWAY KIP O KRONGLY MICHAEL KLINE EMILY SCHROEDER WILLIS SANDY BLAIN AKIRA SATAKE TIP TOLAND STEVEN HILL NICK JOERLING JIM & SHIRL PARMENTIER BRAD CANTRELL MELISA CADELL GATLINBURG, TN ARROWMONT.ORG november

64 Olympic FL12E Inside dimensions 24 x 24 x 36, 12 cu. ft., fires to 2350 F Cone 10, 12 key controller with cone fire & ramp hold programming, volt, single phase. $5710 For less than $6,000, you could be firing a 12 cubic foot, cone 10 gas or electric kiln. More value for your dollar, more bang for your buck! * Pictured with optional stainless steel vent hood Olympic DD9 with Vent Hood* Inside dimensions 30 x 25 x 25, inside volume 15 cu. ft., setting area 23 x 23 x 30, 9.2 cu. ft., fires to 2350 F Cone 10, propane or natural gas $5870 Contact an Olympic Kilns Distributor to purchase an Olympic Gas or Electric Kiln Phone or Fax Warren MacKenzie, master artist DVD. Internationally renowned ceramic artist, Warren MacKenzie, shares his thoughts on ceramics and the expression of personal and cultural values in an intimate conversation full of humility and candor. This DVD is a one of a kind view of his work and the artist. Denver: 5303 East 47th Avenue, Unit N, Denver, CO Minneapolis: 1101 Stinson Blvd NE, Minneapolis, MN fax november

65 shakerag workshops june 2015 Bernadette Curran Neil Patterson Sandi Pierantozzi Jill Solomon sewanee, tn Don t miss our e-dition at november

66 techno file strontium/barium by Dave Finkelnburg Artists who create their own glazes sometimes struggle with the questions, Strontium or barium, which should I use? And why? This article will help you answer those questions. Defining the Terms Alkali Elements: Lithium, sodium, and potassium, which are active, low-melting temperature fluxes that produce bright colors in glazes. Alkaline Earth Elements: Magnesium, calcium, strontium, and barium, which are moderately active, somewhat refractory fluxes that may produce muted colors in glazes. Coefficient of Thermal Expansion: Fractional change in length per degree of temperature change, usually given as inches/inch- F (centimeters/centimeter- C). The units of length cancel out, but the temperature scale used must be known. Flux: An alkali or alkaline earth element that promotes melting of a glaze or clay body. Safety The most important thing to know about these fluxes is that strontium carbonate is not radioactive (that s strontium 90) and barium carbonate is an effective rat poison. Yes, this glaze ingredient a fine white powder is dangerously toxic to people! Using barium carbonate safely requires taking proper precautions to avoid inhaling its dust. It also goes without saying that it must be kept out of the reach of children and pets, either as the powder or in the mixed glaze, as well as away from any area where it might be accidentally added to food or drink. Confusion about barium s toxicity can occur because barium sulfate, an acid insoluble compound, is used internally in humans in medical applications. At least some barium has been reported to be leachable from most if not all glazes. Chemical Investigation Both chemically, and in their effects on glazes, strontium and barium are closely related to calcium and magnesium, the most common alkaline earth elements in glazes. However, each of these fluxes have different effects on glaze melting, crystal formation, glaze fit, and the response of colorant oxides. For use in glazes, alkaline earth fluxes are all available as carbonates. Calcium carbonate, often called whiting, is made by grinding ordinary limestone to a very fine powder. Magnesium is also found in limestone, notably as the variable mineral dolomite, theoretically 54% calcium carbonate and 46% magnesium carbonate. Both limestone and dolomite are abundant and inexpensive. Strontium and barium, on the other hand, occur most commonly as sulfate minerals and are converted to carbonates by expensive chemical processes. That s why they are much more costly. Strontium and barium both brighten glossy glazes, barium even more than strontium. In both cases the brightness is a result of the effect of strontium and barium on the refractive index of a glaze, the angle at which light is reflected by the surface of the fired glaze. All carbonate glaze ingredients decompose on heating and give off carbon dioxide. Thermal decomposition of barium and strontium carbonates in glazes is reported to occur at relatively high temperatures (around cone 02). This is in stark contrast to magnesium carbonate, which decomposes well below red heat, and calcium carbonate, which decomposes completely by cone 010. The higher thermal decomposition temperatures of strontium and barium carbonates occur because of the high bond strengths between the flux elements, carbon, and oxygen. Strontium and barium have similar effects on the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of glossy glazes they reduce the CTE. When they are used in small amounts in glossy glazes, the effect on the CTE will be minimal. These fluxes are sometimes used in large amounts in matte glazes, which makes predicting the resulting CTE difficult. That s because the glass phase and crystal phase typically have different linear CTE values. Because the amount of crystal phase formed is a result of glaze chemistry but is also influenced by cooling, only testing will reveal the CTE produced with a particular combination of glaze recipe and firing. Strontium, compared to calcium, somewhat lowers the temperature at which a glaze melts. Barium, on the other hand, somewhat raises the glaze melting temperature in comparison to calcium. SG-259 Opaque Blue Matte with Barium Cone 10 Barium Carbonate % Nepheline Syenite Ball Clay Silica % Add: Copper Carbonate % Bentonite % SG-259 Opaque Blue Matte with strontium Cone 10 Strontium Carbonate % Nepheline Syenite Ball Clay Silica % Add: Copper Carbonate % Bentonite % 1 A perfect example of the difficulty in replacing barium carbonate in a glaze is SG-259, a silky matte barium copper blue. SG-259 is a completely different color when strontium carbonate (2) is used. The surface feel is similar, but slightly smoother in the strontium glaze november

67 Strontium or Barium? Why use barium in the studio? It can contribute to remarkable copper blues, beautiful satin matte surfaces, brighter glossy glazes and somewhat lower glaze expansion compared to calcium. Where white surface scumming is a problem in low-fire clay bodies, the addition of a small amount of barium carbonate can prevent this fault. The scumming is caused by gypsum (calcium sulfate) in the body. Why use strontium in the studio? It can be used to make exceptional satin to matte glazes, also lowers glaze expansion compared to calcium, and brightens glossy glazes. Are there disadvantages to using barium or strontium? Safety is certainly a problem with barium carbonate as a raw material, and barium leaching from glazes is widely reported. Both fluxes are relatively expensive. Barium carbonate decomposes at a relatively high temperature. Where pinholing and blistering are problematic a barium frit may be a better way to introduce this flux. Strontium is not toxic in any form so it has none of the safety issues associated with barium. Strontium carbonate decomposition, though, can occur at a high enough temperature to cause pinholing in mid- to high-fire glazes. Thus, the lower the firing temperature, the more likely a strontium frit should be used instead of strontium carbonate. At the least, a relatively slow firing rate near the peak temperature may be necessary to smooth glaze flaws. Because both barium and strontium are available in frits, a form suitable for use at much lower firing temperatures, excellent lowfire barium or strontium matte glazes have become possible. For the same reason, low-fire glossy glazes can be brightened with a small addition of strontium or barium by means of a frit. A common starting point for fluxes in glossy glazes is, in flux unity, to use 0.7 moles of alkalis (70% of the flux atoms) and 0.3 moles of the alkaline earth element calcium (30% of the flux atoms). If the proportion of calcium is increased, or if more than half the calcium is replaced by magnesium, barium, or strontium, satin to matte glaze finishes can be produced. This may appear simpler than it is. A glaze containing several alkaline earth fluxes can be less likely to produce the tiny crystals that form satin and matte surfaces than a glaze with only one. Barium tends to produce very small crystals, thus beautiful satin glazes, followed next by strontium, with calcium likely to produce more matte surfaces. Of course, the kiln cooling cycle is a variable that must also be considered. Formation of even tiny crystals from the glaze melt takes time. Matte glazes thus require a somewhat slower cooling cycle than glossy glazes. When using different fluxes, the fired surface is not the only glaze feature affected. Glaze expansion, color response, and glaze melting temperature may all change, too. Only testing will show whether the combination of glaze recipe, application, body, and firing will produce desired results. So what s the bottom line, strontium or barium? Simply put, use these fluxes for specific purposes and where appropriate to achieve specific effects when no available alternatives will serve as well. Keep in mind that there are potential problems with each, but before you give up on a glaze that is great except for one or two flaws, work out a troubleshooting plan to see if you can correct them. SG-302 Opaque Gray-Tan Matte with Barium Cone 10 Barium Carbonate % Whiting Custer Feldspar Ball Clay (OM 4) % Add: Rutile % Ultrox (Sub. Zirconium) % Bentonite % SG-302 Opaque Gray-Tan Matte with Strontium Cone 10 Strontium Carbonate % Whiting Custer Feldspar Ball Clay (OM 4) % Add: Rutile % Ultrox (Sub. Zirconium) % Bentonite % SG-302 Opaque Gray-Tan Matte with Whiting Cone 10 Whiting % Custer Feldspar Ball Clay (OM 4) % Add: Rutile % Ultrox % Bentonite % SG-302 is a satin matte glaze with nearly 10% rutile added to the base glaze. The barium matte (3) has a buttery feel, which is entirely gone in the strontium glaze (4), which is very dry. The color varies between thin and thick applications, and the speckling in the barium glaze where it s thickest is not repeated in the thicker application of the strontium glaze. The whiting version (5) (added here for comparison) is orange rather than yellow. This may suggest that iron and rutile in large quantities in non-glossy glazes may be difficult to get exactly right. Additionally, some strontium mattes may be drier than barium mattes with the same molar concentration of flux, and there may be some pitting in such glazes. Recipes and images in figures 1 5 originally appeared in Leaving Bariumville by Daniel Semler, Ceramics Monthly, October 2007, pp november

68 tips and tools simple apron making by Jeni Hansen Gard and Lindsay Scypta Working in the ceramics studio is often messy. Try following these tips to make your own apron. Share your handmade apron by posting a picture to Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #handmadeapron. We both love color and pattern and we have found every way imaginable to infuse our day with it, from our art to our wardrobes. One thing that was missing from both of our studios was the perfect apron to keep us clean. Lindsay has always preferred to protect her clothes from the clay and Jeni has ruined far too many washing machines with clay-laden cloths. So we set out to make aprons for ourselves for cleanliness, practicality, and for a pleasurable studio accessory. Those first aprons we made have long since been pushed to the back of the rack and each new season and discovery of new patterns and endeavors seems to warrant a new apron. This is a short guide to making a very simple apron using one you already have as a template. We hope you, too, will take to the adventure of apron making! Template Do some investigation, decide what you like in an apron (longer or shorter, split leg, half or full, etc). For simple apron making, lay down your fabric on a flat surface, place the pre-existing apron on top, and trace the desired shape with a light mark using a fabric pencil (1). Cut around the edge, leaving an extra ½ 1 inch of fabric around the outline to account for the seam line. Repeat the process for the inside or liner fabric (2 3). This adds thickness and durability and helps keep you dry. Making Pockets Decide what kind of pocket you want and where you want it to be placed. Think about what tools you want to put in the pocket; this can help you in determining what size and where you chose to place it. Cut out two layers of fabric for each pocket. Pin the fabrics together (using the quilting pins) with the print side (right side in sewing terms) facing inward and sew along the edges leaving the Materials and Tool List Sewing machine Sewing scissors (for fabric only) Quilting pins Fabric pencil Pre-existing apron, pattern, or template All-purpose polyester thread: medium size 50. (We used white but it is best to chose a color that matches your most dominant fabric color.) 2 yards of fabric: 1 yard for the front and 1 yard for the back. (This can be broken into ½ yards for a multi-colored apron. We used cotton but you can use any fabric. For a really durable apron try duck cotton or linen.) Additional fabric and ribbon swatches: ½ yard for pockets and ties. top of the pocket open (like a pillow case). Flip the pocket insideout, revealing the print. Fold under the raw edges of the fabric and iron to flatten. Pin along the edge and sew, containing the pocket in itself. Set aside the liner fabric and pin the pocket onto the top layer (4). Sew the pocket onto the apron, making sure to leave the top of the pocket open (5 6). Waist and Neck Tie For a simple waist and neck tie, you can use ribbon. For a more complex tie, you can use fabric. For the waist tie, cut two strips of november

69 Lay down a pre-exisitng apron and trace with a fabric pencil leaving ½ inch for the seam. 2 3 Cut the liner fabric and place on top of the outer fabric to check for accuracy. 4 Pin the pockets in their desired location. 5 6 Sew the pockets into the top layer making sure to leave the top of the pockets open. 7 Pin both the front and inside layers of the apron together, leaving the top of the apron open. Sew the apron together starting at the top corner. 8 After turning the apron right-side out and placing and pinning the neck tie in place, sew across the top to finish the apron. the same fabric to approximately 3 inches wide and 20 inches in length. For a belt-style waist tie, use one strip of fabric that is 3 inches wide and 60 inches in length. This should be adjusted depending on your size and preference. For the neck tie, cut two strips of the same fabric to approximately 3 inches wide and 45 inches in length. Fold the strips in half lengthwise with the pattern on the inside. Iron flat and sew along the edge, closing off one end of the strip. This end will be used to tie the apron together. The open end will be used to flip the strips inside out using whatever means necessary. A wooden dowel can help do the trick. Finishing Lay both fabrics of the apron together with the print inside (right side). Place your waist tie appropriately and secure it with pins. Pin both the front and inside layers of the apron together, leaving the top of the apron open (7). Using your sewing machine, sew the apron together starting at a top corner and working your way down and around to the opposite top side corner. Make sure you leave the top completely open (like a pillowcase). Flip the apron right-side out. At the top of the apron, fold under the raw edges of the fabric and iron them to flatten. Place the neck tie and pin to hold it in place. Sew across the top, enclosing the apron and securing the neck tie at the same time (8). Tips Add a small loop at the top of your apron to catch your ear buds. Add a pocket for your phone or small tools. Try invisible polyester thread for sewing over ribbons or anytime you need to hide your stitch. For a more durable apron try using cotton duck or linen. Try using a laminated fabric for easy clean up. The laminate is a clear vinyl that is water resistant and easy to wipe off. To avoid frequently washing your apron, add a Velcro strip on your apron to attach a dish towel, wipe your hands on the dish towel when they re really grungy, then remove it, soak it in a bucket of water to get rid of most of the clay, and wash separately. If you want to make an apron but you do not have access to a sewing machine, check with your local sewing or crafts store, they usually offer classes. Follow Ceramics Monthly on Pinterest to see more examples of handmade aprons. Send your tip and tool ideas, along with plenty of images, to editorial@ceramicsmonthly.org. If we use your idea, you ll receive a complimentary one-year subscription to CM! november

70 46 feature recipes modernist series Margaret Bohls shares her clay body and glaze recipes for her newest body of work, the Modernist sets. Clay Body Bohls Porcelain Clay Body (1) Cone 10 Custer Feldspar % Pyrotrol... 8 Grolleg Kaolin Tile Kaolin Silica % Add: Bentonite... 2 % Pyrotrol products impart higher strength in electrical porcelains and reduce dunting problems associated with traditional porcelain bodies if substituted for silica content. The Pyrotrol group of mineral products offers a controlled blend of milled Andalusite/ Pyrophyllite ores. 1 Clay Bodies for Trays Laguna WC391 B3 Brown (2) Cone 5 Reduction Laguna WC 373 Dark Brown Cone 10 Reduction Glazes Larry s Bronze (3) Cone 6 9 Ball Clay... 7 % Cedar Heights Redart Silica % Add: Cobalt Carbonate % Copper Carbonate % Manganese Dioxide % Fires to a metallic bronze. This glaze will brighten up if re-fired to cone 04. This glaze is not food safe. VC Matte Revised (4) Cone 6 9 Gerstley Borate % Lithium Carbonate Whiting NC-4 Feldspar Titanium Dioxide EPK Kaolin Silica % For Orange/Red/Brown Add: Red Iron Oxide % Rutile % The original recipe came from Val Cushing. Wild Rose (5) Cone 6 9 Bone Ash % Lithium Carbonate Nepheline Syenite Grolleg Kaolin % Red Iron Oxide % Tenmoku-like Brown/Black, but super shiny and sometimes gold metallic. Woo White (6) Cone 10 Barium Carbonate % Dolomite NC-4 Spar EPK Kaolin... 7 Silica... 7 Zircopax % Optional Add: Rutile... 4 % Fires to an opaque matte surface. Works well in oxidation or reduction. Good in salt/ soda firings. This glaze is not food safe. 68 november

71 New Report on Kiln Ventilation Visit our website for new test results on Kiln Ventilation or call for your free copy of report. Toll-Free: Cleveland Institute of Art Creativity Matters SHIMPO S handheld extruder comes with 5 pre-cut dies and one solid die to cut your own extruder shape. SHIMPO S new hollow die extruder set! It comes with these 8 dies shown as well as the barrel to hold the dies in place. Assistant/Associate Professor Ceramics Department Simply place the barrel and hollow die in our hand-held extruder and extrude hollow forms! Cleveland Institute of Art is seeking a qualified individual to fill a full-time ranked position as an Assistant/Associate Professor in its Ceramics Department. Visit our website for the complete posting: cia.edu/jobs Don t miss our e-dition at november

72 36 Feature recipes clear liner glaze Sam Chung shares a cone 10 clear glaze recipe that he currently uses to line the inside of his work. Hensley Clear Cone 10 Oxidation or Reduction Barium Carbonate % Gerstley Borate Whiting Ferro Frit Kona F-4 Feldspar (sub Minspar 200) Grolleg Kaolin Silica % Add: Tin Oxide % After bisque firing the work to cone 06, I line the inside of the pot with this clear glaze. After firing to cone 10, I spray a cone 6 commercial clear glaze on the outside when the pot is still warm, which helps evaporate some of the water from the glaze. I reload it into an electric kiln and fire to cone 6. This may sound backward but it resolved a crazing issue I was having with my glaze. Right: Sam Chung s Cloud Bowl, 11 in. (28 cm) in length, porcelain, glaze, china paint, CALL US! Toll Free: (800) Monday-Friday: 8am-5pm CST Saturday: 8am-12pm CST 1200 East Houston Street San Antonio, TX Pottery Wheels, Equipment, Kilns, Kiln Furniture & Parts, Pottery Tools & Supplies, Molds, Glazes, Clay, Raw Materials and Books. OVER 40 CLAYS Clayworld s No. 1 Stoneware Soda Fired, Cone 10 by McKenzie Wright NEW Mid/High Fire Celadon Glazes by Amaco in stock! FREE SHIPPING ON MOST KILNS! 70 november

73 november

74 visiting master artist ceramics workshops Ramon Camarillo February 19-21, 2015 Paul Lewing February 26-28, 2015 Jennifer McCurdy March 5-7, 2015 Yoko Sekino-Bové March 12-14, 2015 Ramon Camarillo For a complete schedule and to register visit armoryart.org/vmaw JEWELRY CERAMICS SCULPTURE PAINTING GLASS 1700 Parker Avenue West Palm Beach, FL armoryart.org 38 Silicon Carbide Kiln Shelves Custom Manabigama Kiln Refractory Packages 72 november

75 Imagine how much you would save if your kiln lasted 20 years. L&L Hercules durability means much longer kiln life. Features include hard ceramic element holders, protected thermocouples, solid welded and powdercoated steel cases, manual cooling vent, elements on all four sides, automatic zone control, easy maintenance with separate panel, easy-to-change elements, and unparalleled on-line tech support. 24 cubed and 24 x 24 x 27 H. KILNS BUILT TO LAST Toll Free: Unique L&L Patented Hard Ceramic Element Holders hotkilns.com/hercules november

76 Two Memberships for the Price of One Shaper Join our growing community of clay lovers. < < < < education through conferences and workshops promotion of ceramics through exhibitions and calendars product discounts business benefits Join Now and Bring a Friend for Only $52 Offer Expires December 5, 2014 Share ideas, meet new people, and enjoy the many benefits of membership: JOIN TODAY at The place to build, manage, and share your recipe collection! Barium Matte Base Glaze 5 Robust search to find exactly what you re looking for Save any recipe in your own account for later testing Upload your own recipes so everything is in one place Download recipe files for glaze calculation Share your recipes with the community Hundreds of recipes, more added every day. start building your recipe collection join today! Coleman s Crab Claw Shino Glaze 5 Amber Celadon 5 74 november

77 ALL YOUR CLAY DESIRES Highwater Clays THE EARTH S BEST CLAYS highwaterclays.com Anderson Ranch arts center learn, create + be inspired! JAMAICA FIELD EXPEDITION APRIL 25 - MAY 1, 2015 with Margaret Bohls, David Pinto & Doug Casebeer 2015 SUMMER WORKSHOP FACULTY BARRY BARTLETT ANDY BRAYMAN DOUG CASEBEER LISA CLAGUE JOSH DEWEESE AKARI FURUTANI NORI FURUTANI JULIA GALLOWAY ARTHUR GONZALEZ DELL HARROW MOLLY HATCH SAM HARVEY HOLLY HUGHES YUTAKA KAWAHITO GAIL KENDALL MICHAEL KRUEGER LORNA MEADEN ALLEGHANY MEADOWS RON NAGLE TAKASHI NAKAZATO ETSUJI NOGUCHI LIZ QUACKENBUSH RALPH SCALA CHRISTIAN VAN MINNEN info@andersonranch.org to receive a 2015 catalog Snowmass Village, Colorado andersonranch.org LOVE YOUR GIFFIN GRIP! GIFFINGRIP.COM november

78 Clay Tools & Reference Materials New Book Figure Sculpting by Philippe & Charisse Faraut presents New! $ Shipping PCF Studios.com PO Box 722 Honeoye, NY ceramic arts daily presents b e n carter 2-disc set! Making plates can be tricky issues of warping and cracking can be common if you don t know what you re doing. So, in this allnew Ceramic Arts Daily Presents compilation, we ve gathered four talented artists to demonstrate how they approach making and decorating plates and platters. a dam field meredith host forrest Lesch-Middelton ceramic arts daily video library order online today or watch clips at DON T MISS AN ISSUE! renew your magazine subscription online at ceramicartsdaily.org ceramic arts bookstore New! Projects for the studio AND the kitchen! It s pretty unusual to have dinner at a potter s house and leave hungry. Cooking and making pottery go hand in hand, and Sumi von Dassow s new book In the Potter s Kitchen merges these complementary passions! Discussions on design, projects for making ceramic cookware, as well as recipes to cook in the cookware, make this book a truly one-of-a-kind experience. download a free excerpt from the book or order your copy today at ceramicartsdaily.org/bookstore Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Publication Title: CERAMICS MONTHLY. Publication number Filing date: October 1, Published monthly, except July and August; ten times per year. Annual subscription price: $ Office of Publication: 600 N. Cleveland Ave., Westerville, Delaware County, Ohio Publisher: Charles Spahr, 600 N. Cleveland Ave., Westerville, OH Editor: Jessica Knapp, 600 N. Cleveland Ave., Westerville, OH Managing Editor: none. Owner: The Ceramic Publications Company, 600 N. Cleveland Ave., Westerville, OH Stockholders owning or holding 1% or more of total amount of stock: none. The known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1% or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: none. The average number of copies each issue during the preceding 12 months: a) Total number of copies (net press run) 22,032 b) Paid/requested circulation 1) Paid/requested mail subscriptions 19,497 2) Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales and other non-usps paid distribution 1,445 c) Total paid/requested circulation 20,942 d) Free distribution by mail, samples, complimentary and other free copies 313 e) Free distribution outside the mail 250 f) Total free distribution 563 g) Total distribution 21,505 h) Copies not distributed i) Total 21,923 Percent paid /requested circulation 97% The actual number of copies for single issue nearest filing date: OCTOBER 2014 a) Total number of copies (net press run) 21,836 b) Paid/requested circulation 1) Paid/requested mail subscriptions 19,012 2) Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales and other non-usps paid distribution 1,090 c) Total paid/requested circulation 20,102 d) Free distribution by mail, samples, complimentary and other free copies 289 e) Free distribution outside the mail 975 f) Total free distribution...1,264 g) Total distribution 21,366 h) Copies not distributed 418 i) Total 21,784 Percent paid /requested circulation 94% I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete... Charles Spahr, Publisher 76 november

79 call for entries deadlines for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals International Exhibitions November 2, 2014 entry deadline Virginia, Lorton Drink This! The Workhouse International Cup Show (January 7 February 2, 2015) ceramic drinking vessels by contemporary artists around the globe. Work must have been completed within the last two years. Mixed media works will be permitted if clay is the primary component. Juried from digital. Fee: $25 for 1 entry, $30 for up to 3 entries. Juror: Phil Rogers. Contact Dale Marhanka, Workhouse Arts Center Ceramics Program, 9504 Workhouse Way Bldg. 8, Lorton, VA 22079; ; dalemarhanka@workhousearts.org; November 7, 2014 entry deadline Korea, Gyeonggi-do, International Competition (April 24 May 31) functional ceramics, ceramics as expression, and ceramic works that attempt to reinterpret tradition. Must be newly created or no more than three years in making. Works must not have been submitted to other competitions. Juried from digital. Contact Hyeyoung Cho, Korea Ceramic Foundation GICB2015 Office, 72-1, Sam-ri, Gonjam-eup, Gwangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, , Korea; hycho.seyartnet@gmail.com; (0) November 30 entry deadline Slovenia, Ljubljana 3rd International Ceramic Triennial Unicum 2015 (May 15 September 30, 2015) Open to all artists working in the field of ceramic art. Jurors: Bernd Pfannkuche, Nadja Zgonik, Karel Plemenitas, Valentina Savic, and Insel Inal. Contact: Zora Zbontar; zora. zbontar@nms.si November 30, 2014 entry deadline North Carolina, Wilmington Containment: Lidded Forms (February 26 April 9) lidded forms made entirely of clay. Juried from digital. Fee: $30 for up to 3 pieces. Juror: Mark Hewitt. Contact Aaron Wilcox, CAB Art Gallery, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 601 South College Rd., Wilmington, NC 28403; ; wilcoxa@uncw.edu; December 6, 2014 entry deadline Texas, Houston Texas Teapot Tournament (January 3 January 28, 2015) original clay work representing teapots, either functional or sculptural, and completed within the last two years. Each piece must be at least 60 percent fired clay, weigh no more than 20 lbs., and be no larger than 24 inches in any direction. Juried from actual work. Fee: $45. Juror: Jennifer Herzberg. Contact Janis Ross, CAMEO at 18 Hands Gallery, th St., Houston, TX 77008; info@18handsgallery.com; February 27, 2015 entry deadline California, Lincoln America s Clay- Fest III (April 17 May 30, 2015) all clay artists in the US and around the world are encouraged to submit entries for the $3000+ in prizes and awards. Juried from digital. Fee: $40 for up to 3 entries. Jurors: Tip Toland and Peter Held. Contact Mike Daley, Art League of Lincoln and Blue Line Arts, 580 6th St., Lincoln, CA 95648; ; mdaley@americasclayfest.org; February 27, 2015 entry deadline California, Lincoln America s ClayFest III Student Show (April 17 May 30, 2015) all student artists in the US and around the world working with clay, from the highschool level to the college/university level. Juried from digital. Fee: $25 for up to 3 entries. Juror: Casey O Connor. Contact Mike Daley, Art League of Lincoln and Blue Line Arts, 580 6th St., Lincoln, CA 95648; ; mdaley@americasclayfest.org; September 15, 2015 entry deadline Florida, St. Petersburg Biennial Cup Show (October 1 October 31, 2015) cups, mugs, tumblers, yunomis, tea cups, steins, teabowls. Juried from digital. Fee: $30/3 entries. Juror: Matt Schiemann. Contact Matt Schiemann, Morean Center for Clay, nd St. S., St. Petersburg, FL 33712; ; stpeteclay@gmail.com; united states exhibitions November 1, 2014 entry deadline Colorado, Denver Icebreaker 6 (January 8 January 31, 2015) artists of all mediums and themes. Juried from digital. Fee: $35. Contact Sarah Rockett, Ice Cube Gallery, 3320 Walnut St., Denver, CO 80205; IceCubeGalleryDenver@gmail.com; November 14, 2014 entry deadline Montana, Missoula All About Porcelain (February 6 February 27, 2015) functional, sculptural, or any works that are mainly created with porcelain. Must not exceed 20 inches or 20 lbs. Juried from digital. Fee: $25 for up to 2 entries. Juror: Beth Lo. Contact Shalene Valenzuela, The Clay Studio of Missoula, 1106A Hawthorne St., Missoula, MT 59802; info@theclaystudioofmissoula.org; November 15, 2014 entry deadline North Carolina, Greenville The Schwa Show (January 2 January 30) artists in any media and subject matter. Juried from digital. Fee: $15 up to 3, $5 each additional entry up to 5. Juror: Tara Locklear. Contact Cathy Hardison, The Schwa Show, 404 S. Evans St., Greenville, NC 27858; cathy@pittcountyarts.org; December 5, 2014 entry deadline New Hampshire, Manchester All Things Tea (January 22 March 6, 2015) functional and sculptural items that are made to complement the enjoyment of this classic beverage: infusers, teapots, cups, and sets made of ceramic, metal, wood. Juried from digital. Fee: $25 for 3 entries. Contact Monica Leap, Studio 550 Community Art Center, 550 Elm St., Manchester, NH 03101; info@550arts.com; December 17, 2014 entry deadline Louisiana, Alexandria Dirty South Mug Competition (April 7 May 23) all artists working in clay residing in the US. Work no larger than 10x10x10. Juried from digital. Fee: $25 for 3 entries. Juror: Tom Coleman. Contact James Bolen, River Oaks Square Arts Center, 1330 Second St., Alexandria, LA 71301; ab@riveroaksartscenter.com; March 21, 2015 entry deadline Washington, DC The 3rd National Juried Bonsai Pot Exhibition American made bonsai containers in the following categories: round, oval, rectangle, cascade, shohin, accent/kusamono, and experimental design. Juried from digital. Fee: $35 for up to 10 entries. Jurors: Deborah, Bedwell, Michael Hagedorn, Sara Rayner. Contact Ron Lang, National Bonsai Foundation, at The US National Arboretum, The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, 3501 New York Ave., Washington DC, ; AskRon@comcast.net; fairs and festivals November 15, 2014 entry deadline Florida, Cedar Key Old Florida Celebration of the Arts (March 28 March 29, 2015) Fine Arts and Crafts. No country crafts, buy/sell or mass produced items. Applications accepted through Zapplication.org. Juried from digital. Fee: $32. Contact Event Coordinator, Cedar Key Arts Center, PO Box 949, Cedar Key, FL 32625; cedarkeyartsfestival@gmail.com; January 1, 2015 entry deadline Connecticut, Guilford Guilford Art Center s Craft Expo 2015 (July 17 July 19, 2015) Open to fine contemporary crafts made in the US or Canada by hand or with the use of appropriate tools, by an individual and/or with help from a limited number of assistants/apprentices. Juried from digital. Fee: $40. Jurors: Kathleen Brown, Kate Lydon, Trudi Van Dyke. Contact Allison Maltese, Guilford Art Center, PO Box 589, Guilford, CT 06437; amaltese@guilfordartcenter.org; January 1, 2015 entry deadline Maryland, Gaithersburg Sugarloaf Crafts Festival in Gaithersburg (April 17 April 19) all mediums. Juried from digital. Fee: $20. Contact Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, Sugarloaf Mountain Works Inc., Executive Park Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; ; apply@sugarloaffest.com; January 1, 2015 entry deadline Maryland, Timonium Sugarloaf Crafts Festival in Timonium (April 25 April 26) all mediums. Juried from digital. Fee: $20. Contact Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, Sugarloaf Mountain Works Inc., Executive Park Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; ; apply@sugarloaffest.com; January 1, 2015 entry deadline New Jersey, Somerset Sugarloaf Crafts Festival in Somerset (March 13 March 15) all mediums. Juried from digital. Fee: $20. Contact Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, Sugarloaf Mountain Works Inc., Executive Park Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; ; apply@sugarloaffest.com; January 1, 2015 entry deadline Pennsylvania, Oaks Sugarloaf Crafts Festival in Oaks (March 20 March 22) all mediums. Juried from digital. Fee: $20. Contact Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, Sugarloaf Mountain Works Inc., Executive Park Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; ; apply@sugarloaffest.com; January 1, 2015 entry deadline Virginia, Chantilly Sugarloaf Crafts Festival in Chantilly (January 30 February 1) all mediums. Juried from digital. Fee: $20. Contact Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, Sugarloaf Mountain Works Inc., Executive Park Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; ; apply@sugarloaffest.com; January 13, 2015 entry deadline Maryland, Baltimore American Made Show (January 16 January 19) handmade items made in the US or Canada. Juried from digital. Contact Mary Strope, American Made Show, 3000 Chestnut Ave., Ste. 300, Baltimore, MD 21211; sales@rosengrp.com; x299 november

80 classified advertising Ceramics Monthly welcomes classifieds in the following categories: Buy/Sell, Employment, Events, Opportunities, Personals, Products, Publications/Videos, Real Estate, Rentals, Services, Travel. Accepted advertisements will be inserted into the first available print issue, and posted on our website for 30 days at no additional charge! See for details. buy/sell Wanted: Flathead for Ted Randall Wheel, tapered shaft. Please call (817) employment Busy Los Angeles ceramics studio hiring an experienced production potter to work with 2 potters in same studio. Experienced throwers only. Must be able to throw lbs of clay on the wheel. $20 per hour. Part-time to full-time. heatherlevine@mac.com. Throwers Needed in NH, willing to train but experience a plus. Skilled craftsman earn $13.50 $22.50, piece rate can earn more. $1, sign on bonus for right candidate. info@salmonfalls.com with resume and pictures. Call Andy at (603) for more information. Immediate Opening. events Chandra DeBuse workshop Collar City Clay Guild is presenting Chandra in a workshop February 6, 7, and 8, View Chandra s work at Chandra will demo how she handles pots that are lively, amusing, and functional. Location: Northeast Ceramic Supply/ Monroe Clayworks, Troy, NY. Cost: $200 prior to January 1, 2015; $250 after. Sign up and make check payable to: CCCG, P.O. Box 811 Troy, NY Join Jeff Foster for a Sculpture workshop with non-conventional building techniques in Tuscany. April Info at First City Art Center s first biannual Clay Conference featuring Steven Hill. February 20 22, 2015; or call (850) Stephen Procter Workshop at Northeast Ceramic Supply/Monroe Clay- Works. Now signing up for Jan 9, 10, and 11, Throwing in Sections hands on weekend workshop. View Steve s work at Stephenprocter.com. Making a large pot is more about strategy and patience then sheer strength. Learn to make sectional pots with failproof tongue and groove joints we can only take 10 in this workshop. Cost is $300. Contact: claywomn@aol.com or (518) Virgin Islands Winter 2015 Leah Leitson Responding to Touch: Thrown and altered Porcelain January 4 11, Hands-on workshop focusing on form and surface of freshly thrown pots. Cone 10 firing in a Waste Vegetable Oil kiln. For information or to register, potteryinparadise@gmail.com or call Casey Giakas at (732) WORKSHOPS at Baltimore Clayworks. Kate Borcherding, Developing Narrative Figurative Sculpture, Sat Sun November 15 and 16, 2014; Mark Shapiro, Teapots: Brew/Pour /More, Sat Sun January 17 and 18, Please visit or call x10. opportunities Seeking Ceramic instructors for the Clinton Arts Center. The center is a new non-profit located in the Village of Clinton, Michigan between Ann Arbor, Jackson and Adrian. The scheduled opening is October We are in the process of setting up clay classes for January There are opportunities for alternative firings with clay. The center has both gas and electric kilns as well as raku. It is a fully equipped studio and offers both cone 10 and cone 6 studio glazes. Please send your proposal and salary requirements or questions to: info@clintonartscenter.org. Visit for more information. products GREAT NEW HANDBUILDING TEM- PLATES! Developed by Sandi Pierantozzi. A set of 24 durable, flexible, laminated templates to create Circular and Conical Forms. Perfect for Potters or Teachers! New Cone 8 Oxidation Crystal Glaze! This glaze is food safe and can be dipped or sprayed. Just set the kiln to cone 8. No special firing schedule is required to get these incredible micro-crystal formations. Kline Crystal Glaze-Oxidation is fired to cone 8 to achieve a vitreous clay body (note: any cone 6 10 clay body is not vitrified at cone 6. You ll get much better results if you fire your clay body to cone 8). Kline Crystal Glaze is also available for reduction atmosphere along with colored crystal washes for a variety of color. To purchase these special crystal glazes visit KlinePorcelainGallery.com. STRONG ARM CENTERING & OPEN- ING TOOL Make more pots, save your joints, use it to center and open 1 30 pounds of clay in seconds easily! This is the greatest tool for production potters, schools and studio potters. Create those big pots you have always imagined! Watch the video at or call (585) real estate Multiple Studios and 3 Bdrm Home Offering two, 40 ft. x 30 ft. floors of open work space, 320 sq.ft. kiln/ work shed, 2 car detached garage with unfinished 2nd floor, and 40 ft. x 30 ft. dry basement with 7.5 ft. ceiling for additional storage/work space. The house has an updated kitchen/ dining area with cherry cabinets, and adjacent to large outdoor living space. All on a 2+ acre private country setting in Kensington, NH, conveniently located only 7 mins to Route 95, and 55 mins to Boston. $469,000 See the listing at: or Call agent Bill Bedingfield, BH&GRE the Masiello Group (603) ext #3019. services Ceramics Consulting Services offers technical information and practical advice on clay/glaze/kiln faults and corrections, slip casting, clay body/ glaze formulas, salt glazing, product design. Call or write for details. Jeff Zamek, 6 Glendale Woods Dr., Southampton, MA 01073; (413) ; fixpots@aol.com; or Custom Ceramic Molds For nearly 20 years, Petro Mold Company has been designing molds for some of the world s most renowned ceramic artists and potters. Our innovative molds will help you improve productivity with your popular designs. We set the highest American quality standards with our sculpting, mold manufacturing and design services. Visit us today at or (800) Custom stamps 4 clay. Logos for mugs up to 5 sizes. Fast service, we take almost any artwork. No art charge for most jobs. High quality workmanship, black Signature Writer (R) Surface for professional clay artists. (920) Custom Extruder and Pugmill Dies. Starting at $ Any brand extruder or pugmill; any material. tim@northstarequipment.com or visit us online: (800) Master Kiln Builders. 26+ years experience designing and building beautiful, safe, custom kilns for universities, colleges, high schools, art centers and private clients. Soda/salt kilns, wood kilns, raku kilns, stoneware kilns, sculpture burnout kilns, car kilns and specialty electric kilns. Competitive prices. Donovan. Phone/fax (612) travel OVERSEAS CERAMIC WORKSHOPS & TOURS WITH DISCOVERY ART TRAVEL MYANMAR (BURMA) Jan. 28 Feb. 13, SICILY Sept. 26 Oct. 14, MOROCCO Oct. 26 Nov. 16, Small, culturally sensitive groups using local interpreters and experts. Denys James, Canada; 1-(250) ; denys@discoveryarttravel.com. MYANMAR (BURMA) 2015 Ceramics Excursion, January 29 February 13. Mandalay, Bagan, Inle Lake, Yangon. Go back in time experience ancient pottery making and firing in traditional villages; Golden Shwedagon temple in Yangon; optional beach holiday. Denys James, Discovery Art Travel; (250) SICILY, ITALY, September 26 October 14 Majolica, Mosaics and Architectural Masterpieces. Explore this diverse Italian island, rich in its ceramics, architecture, history, beauty, cuisine and wine. denys@denysjames.com. MOROCCO 2015 Ceramics Excursion, October 26 November 16, The Full Circle, including Fez, Chefchaouen, Essaouira, Volubilis, Marrakech, Zagora, Meknes, Rabat, Casablanca. Studio visits, adobe architecture, tile art, Roman mosaics, traditional and contemporary ceramics, fabrics, a camel ride in the desert, and much more. Denys James, WORK WITH THE POTTERS OF NICA- RAGUA on a Potters for Peace Brigade, January 10 24, or February 14 28, Visit remote communities, share techniques, experience a beautiful country november

81 Visit Medicine Hat s Historic Clay District... where 75% of the material is local, 100% of the energy is under your feet and there are acres for you to explore. Residency Application by April 15, 2015 Artwork by Les Manning in the Historic Clay District 1831 E 1450 Rd Lawrence, KS (local) (toll free) shop.brackers.com index to advertisers Aardvark...71 Cleveland Institute of Art...69 L & L Kiln Mfg...73 Potters Council...74 ACerS Books...76 Alligator Clay...62 Continental Clay...62 Coyote Clay...63 Larkin Refractory...72 Rochester Inst. of Technology...14 Amaco and Brent...13, 21, 30, 31 Anderson Ranch...75 Armory Art...72 Arrowmont School...61 Bailey Pottery...1, 7, 15 Bennett Pottery...9 Bracker s...79 Carolina Clay...71 Ceramic Arts Daily...76 CeramicRecipes.org...74 Chinese Clay Art...74 Cress Mfg...71 Dolan Tools...63 Geil Kilns...3 Georgies...73 Giffin Tec...75 Great Lakes Clay...76 Greenwich House...23 Herring Designs/SlabMat...76 Highwater Clays...75 Master Kiln Builders...62 Mayco... Cover 2 Medalta...79 MKM...70 Mudtools...73 NCECA...2 New Taipei City Yingge Ceramics Museum...6 North Star Equipment...61 Olympic Kilns...62 Shakerag...63 Sheffield...72 Shimpo... Cover 3, 69 Skutt Ceramic Products... Cover 4 Smith-Sharpe...75 Socwell...69 Spectrum...5 Tucker s...8 Vent-A-Kiln...69 Classifieds...78 Paper Clay...76 Ward Burner...69 Clay Art Ctr/Scott Creek...63 K-12 Natl Ceramic Fdn...72 PCF Studios...76 Clayworld...70 Kiln Doctor...71 Peter Pugger Mfg...4 Xiem Tools USA november

82 spotlight growth and change Ceramics Monthly: Since you and your work appeared in Ceramics Monthly s 2010 Working Potter feature, you have taken your career in a different direction and have gone back to school for a PhD. What led to this change and where are you now with ceramics and making pots? Sequoia Miller: My impetus for going back to school in 2010, first for a masters in design history at Bard and now for a PhD in art history at Yale, came out of a confluence of factors. At an artistic level, my studio practice at the time needed an infusion of new ideas and information. The challenging part was recognizing that I wanted to expand my theoretical and historical framework rather than, say, adding a kiln or doing a residency. I had worked as a full-time potter for about fifteen years and, entering my 40s, it was hard to see how I could maintain that pace for the rest of my life. I also had become a parent in 2008, which unexpectedly helped to open a space for even greater life changes. I would say, though, that I haven t left pottery. For me, studio work centered on generating objects that were meaningful in some way. My academic work widens my scope of questioning how things gain and lose meanings, but at its core the issues are largely the same. My relationship with ceramics is now more research driven than practical. Many of my smaller projects have been on historical ceramics and I am just starting a big curatorial project on mid-twentieth-century ceramic sculpture. I have made pottery and taught a bit the last two summers, primarily as a way to physically remember working in clay. I do not know yet how studio work and research will fit together in the future, but I plan to continue contributing to the dialog about ceramics. 80 november

83 SHIMPO s Holiday Gift to you November 1, 2014 through December 31, 2014 Purchase a VL or RK Whisper and receive your choice of an adjustable stool or 18LC banding wheel FREE OR Purchase a VL Lite, Aspire or Aspire-FP and receive a Japanese Tool Kit FREE Additional promotion Information: Purchase must be made between 11/1/2014 and 12/31/2014. No substitutions. SHIMPO dealer where the wheel was purchased must send in receipt with proof of purchase and gift choice if applicable. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of free items. Continental US only.

84 Front Loader Get a peek at Tom s new glazes and see what he has to say about Skutt s New Front Loading Kiln at: skutt.com Artist: Tom Turner Photos: Gary Rawlins Finally... a Front Loading Electric Kiln backed by the quality of Skutt. For more information on Skutt Kilns or to find a distributor, visit us at or call us directly at