January 20, 2010
Focus: Pottery and Industry Most of us in studio ceramics see ourselves as separate from industrial ceramics. The differences are clear; "we" make things by hand and "they" don't; we make one-of-a-kind objects and they don't; we make limited, short-run lines of work for a relatively small audience, and they make large production runs for mass consumption. However, I would argue that there are more similarities than differences, and there is a whole lot of middle ground where industry and the studio overlap.—Sherman Hall, EditorAlready Registered? Please sign in.
September 15, 2009
A field of blooming cotton under a blue sky can be dazzling, even disorienting as its snowy appearance conjures associations radically at odds with the dry heat of a summer day. This curious confounding of the senses is perhaps only fitting, since cotton is enveloped by other, more troubling, contradictions as well. Fleecy white cotton bolls are visually and tactically among the most appealing of all natural forms, and there is little wonder that an artist should find them formally inspiring. To the eye, what could better exemplify purity?April 28, 2008
Stretching the Limits: Slab Building to Create Pots That Look Like Pillows
Today, we bring you the work of Margaret Bohls who stretches the limits of porcelain to explore the ideas of expansion and restraint. Margaret’s vessels have the appearance of soft, cushy upholstery. They seem like they are being inflated from within. She achieves this effect by painstakingly creating each bulge in her slab building process, which author Glen R. Brown elaborates on below.
