Photo was clipped from the Heard Museum (Arizona) website.

Click on the vessel, after you have navigated from the Sonoron Desert area, a video will start and describe the origins and construction about this beautiful, indigenous vessel done by Mary Juan. It looks disarmingly simple to make, but, in fact, its body thinness and handle arch had very skillful artisan hands in crafting.

http://heardeducation.org/home/

Final Project - Ceramics

In the Korean Vessel Gallery at Academy of Arts there are stoneware pots from the 5th - 6th century that are simple, yet finely constructed, with clean ridges and thin walls. With all the tools and access to techniques that students have, it seemed a reasonable challenge to replicate.

The above pot looks nothing like the vessel on display at the Academy, except for the 3 lugs. My replica is thick walled; the top does not have the graceful expanse in the base, then narrowing and then flare with two rims leading to a final double narrowing. I tried to make the moves in clay, but lacked the ability that was prominent many centuries ago. Mine turned out to look more like a Hawaiian gourd, which is another historical vessel. This class has altered my awareness and appreciation of working with clay.

Glazing. This is the tour de force of potting; it's the frosting on the cake, and the step that takes the most study and experimentation in the process. Glazes, their mixture and application can impart very different results that requires planning through applications that look nothing like the final patina, as photos show.

Ceramics Class - U.H. Manoa, Fall '09 Semester

Up popped another internet site with specialized ceramic products, aimed at a certain niche: people with money.

http://shop.ochrestore.com/products/night-light-holders

This one, sells pieces by Daniel Smith, a U.K. artist, who builds $145 hand-thrown dog dishes, but also produces a wide range of popular, hand-thrown tableware.

Again, spare and simple seems to be what's appealing to the modern buyer.

Ceramics Class - U.H. Manoa, Fall '09 Semester

http://upintheairsomewhere.com/ceramics/index.html

I like the works coming from this site. They are simple-elegant. Susan Dwyer is a young, Chicago based artist, who builds her pieces individually without molds, making each unique.

"Hernal" 1965 Glazed earthenware with colored epoxy (p. 251)

"Call Girl" 1967, glazed earthenware and sculpmetal

Artist ROBERT ARNESON - At U.C. Davis when art department established with no academic hierarchy in late 60's early 70's. "Broke completely with ceramists' role as a producer of tasteful, overly crafted bric-a-brac for middle class sideboards and mantlepieces." (p.122)

"It's a groove to stick your finger down your throat and see what comes up; this is funk." (p. 119). West Coast Funk roots in Dada and Surrealism. "Funk John" self-proclaimed "first mature work" was an exhibition lasting one day. - American Ceramics, 1876 to Present, Clark 1987

Ceramics Class - U.H. Manoa, Fall '09 Semester

Elisabeth von Krogh

Norway

Earthenware, engobes

My attraction - Look at those colours! Vessels are beautifully designed in my eye.

New Word "Engobes" Engobes can be defined as liquid clay slips of varying compositions which are applied to the surface of a clay object, e.g. a pot. The purpose of the engobe can be as different as the varied forms it comes in: to give color to a piece; to improve the surface texture; to provide a ground to do further decoration on; to add textures. - Ceramics Today on-line

Ceramics Class - U.H. Manoa, Fall '09 Semester

Elizabeth Lansch, Switzerland

Large earthenware, glazes in Hotel Widder, Zurich.

I am attracted to the shape and how it fits so well into the space. The shade of blue is very pleasing.

- Peterson, Susan "Contemporary Ceramics"

Ceramics Class - U.H. Manoa, Fall '09 Semester

Margaret Dodd - Australian Ceramicist.

"Double Illusion - Looks like something, but made of something else."

"Abstract expressionism is a violent artist's response to a public lack of concern."

"Zen potter...He's liberated by tradition, but I'm liberated from it."

Photos of Dodd's work are superimposed on life-size backgrounds.

18" brick van (lf)

17" FJ Holden, f20" Vangard, 12" Mini (rt pg)

Ceramics Class - U.H. Manoa, Fall '09 Semester

Peter Rushforth - Australian Potter.

"Pioneers...in this century have been essentially teachers...they've lectured and written books, and expressed forcibly their ideas of creative work in a machine-dominated society."

"If you haven't technique then very often your ideas are stillborn."

"....advice often given to Japanese craftsmen: develop an infallible technique, then leave yourself open to inspiration."

- "Nine Artist Potters" Littlemore pp. 42, 43

Ceramics Class - U.H. Manoa, Fall '09 Semester

Suzanne Wolfe - Faculty Art Exhibition, on-going at Art Bldg. 3 plexi shelf displays of colourful and graphically diverse cups. Eye candy; all complex and compelling. Type on the inside, amazing!

"The dramatically different uses of clay by Suzanne Wolfe and new faculty member Brad Taylor speak to the broad range of this wonderfully malleable material. Wolfe’s series of decal-adorned forms speaks to both the vessel tradition and cultures of consumption, while Taylor’s massive sculpture of porcelain subverts any presumption of delicacy or fragility. Rick Mills’ shallow vessel form of cast glass shares much the same robust sensibility." - Marcia Morse for Honolulu Weekly.

Ceramics Class - U.H. Manoa, Fall '09 Semester

Ass. 5 - Build a set of 6 cups w/tray(s). The idea, again, is to build from a unified design, this time using slab building. We have been shown how to build from slabs, kneading a hunk of clay to kinda' flat, and then throwing it onto the smooth table, tip first and lowering the last part of it, pulling it long. Turn it 90° and throw again, and again to get it into a sort of wide square shape, then follow with a rolling pin to get ~1/4" to 1/16" even thickness in the slab. Roll newsprint around a circular container, like a can. Mark and cut paper into a template that can be used to cut from the slab. Used the cylindrical container to cut a base and attach with "slip" (liquid clay).