Cover: Forrest Lesch-Middelton Spotlight: Designing for Food Clay Culture: Indie Craft Fairs Glaze: at Six PC-1 Saturation Metallic Cone 5-6 over PC-12 Midnight

PC-4 PC-35 PC-42 Palladium Oil Spot Seaweed over over over PC-12 PC-12 PC-12 Layering Blue Midnight Blue Midnight Blue Midnight

PC-25 PC-39 PC-43 Textured Umber Float Toasted Sage Turquoise over over over PC-12 PC-12 PC-12 Blue Midnight Blue Midnight Blue Midnight

PC-33 PC-41 PC-49 Iron Lustre Vert Lustre Frosted Melon over over over PC-12 PC-12 PC-12 Blue Midnight Blue Midnight Blue Midnight PC-12 Josh Heim Layering Notes: Apply one thick PC-55 Indianapolis, IN base coat. Apply three top coats. Chun Plum (Let dry between coats.) Voilà! over PC-12 Blue Midnight

See more layers at LayeringAmacoGlazes.com www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 1 2 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 3 NVS-07 Stainless De-airing Pugmill Mixer

Safety limit switch

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4 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 5 monthly Editorial [email protected] telephone: (614) 794-5867 fax: (614) 891-8960 editor Sherman Hall associate editor Holly Goring associate editor Jessica Knapp editorial assistant Erin Pfeifer technical editor Dave Finkelnburg online editor Jennifer Poellot Harnetty Advertising/Classifieds [email protected] telephone: (614) 794-5834 fax: (614) 891-8960 classifi[email protected] telephone: (614) 794-5843 advertising manager Mona Thiel advertising services Jan Moloney Marketing telephone: (614) 794-5809 marketing manager Steve Hecker Subscriptions/Circulation customer service: (800) 342-3594 [email protected] Design/Production production editor Cyndy Griffith production assistant Kevin Davison design Boismier John Design Editorial and advertising offices 600 Cleveland Ave., Suite 210 Westerville, Ohio 43082 Publisher Charles Spahr Editorial Advisory Board Linda Arbuckle; Professor, Ceramics, Univ. of Florida Scott Bennett; Sculptor, Birmingham, Alabama Val Cushing; Studio Potter, New York Dick Lehman; Studio Potter, Indiana Meira Mathison; Director, Metchosin Art School, Canada Bernard Pucker; Director, Pucker Gallery, Boston Phil Rogers; Potter and Author, Wales Jan Schachter; Potter, California Mark Shapiro; Worthington, Massachusetts Susan York; Santa Fe, New Mexico Ceramics Monthly (ISSN 0009-0328) 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; www.ceramics.org. 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 pub- lished 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. Canada: One year $40, two years $75. International: One year $60, two years $99. 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 91615-5699. contributors: Writing and photographic guidelines are available online at www.ceramicsmonthly.org. indexing: Visit the Ceramics Monthly website at www.ceramicsmonthly.org 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 0009-0328, provided that the appropriate fee is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923, USA; (978) 750-8400; www.copyright.com. 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 91615-5699. Form 3579 requested. Copyright © 2011, The Ceramic Publications Company; a subsidiary of The American Ceramic Society. All rights reserved. www.ceramicsmonthly.org

6 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 7 contentsseptember 2011 volume 59, number 7

editorial

10 From the Editor Sherman Hall 12 letters

techno file

14 the lure of lithium by Dave Finkelnburg Lithium can seem like a silver bullet for fixing glaze fit issues, but like all things that seem magical and alluring at first, moderation is key.

tips and tools

16 Passive Recycling by Diane Gee This system gets gravity to work for you in recycling clay, so you can get back to studio work that’s more fun.

exposure 18 Images from Current and Upcoming Exhibitions

glaze

48 Celadons at Six by John Britt This popular high-fire glaze can be produced with success at mid-range.

reviews 58 2011 national Student Juried Exhibition The National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts’ annual student show, at the University of South Florida’s Centre Gallery and Nancy Oliver Gallery in Tampa, Florida. Reviewed by Tony Merino 60 marvelous mud: Clay Around the World The Denver Art Museum in Denver, Colorado, ambitiously stages eight clay shows at the same time. Reviewed by Sanam Emami

resources 77 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 18 80 In Service of Food Ryan Fletcher’s BFA degree show collaboration with a chef has grown into several explorations of ceramics combined with food service.

8 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org clay culture 24 Does Clay DIy? A discussion of the Indie/DIY craft fair scene, how clay fits (or doesn’t fit) into it, and what ceramic artists might need to know about joining in. 26 Splitting Wood (Kilns) A map of wood kilns with space available in exchange for work (stoking shifts), money, or a mixture of the two. 28 Remembrances Many clay folks leave us each year, and while we can’t pay our respects to all of them, we remember a few who made significant impacts on the field. studio visit 30 Ulrich Schumann, Berlin, It’s not easy to make large work, and it’s even harder to make a living making large work, but the right tools, the right circumstance, and the right perspective can help. features 34 Forrest lesch-middelton: Beauty from Contrasts by Jeffrey Spahn Combine timeless design, form, and surface with a contemporary approach to decorating tools and techniques, and you get a satisfying balance of surface and form. monthly methods Volumetric Image Transfer by Forrest Lesch-Middelton 39 An Extension of the Self: Bob Dolan and his tools by Jack Troy Some of us find more satisfaction in our tools than others. Some of us even make a living making tools. And some of us change the way others work because of our tools.

40 Potter head hunter by Naomi Tsukamoto There are many ways to pay the bills in the world of clay, and most of us would probably jump at the chance to pay some of those bills by visiting potters’ studios, buying their work, and sending it to a nice gallery in Paris—but only one of us gets to do that.

42 last Supper by Megan Fizell Julie Green’s ongoing project against capital punishment relies heavily on historical and cultural ceramic conventions, from blue-and-white brush decoration to clay’s relationship to food. 46 mFA Factor: University of montana, missoula A three-year program led by Julia Galloway, Trey Hill, and Beth Lo. 52 2011 Undergraduate Showcase Works and perspectives by five impressive up-and-comers. 53 cover: Forrest Lesch-Middelton’s minaret bottles, to 18 in. (46 cm) in height, iron rich with slip-transfer patterns, fired to cone 9, reduction cooled, 2011; see page 34.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 9 from the editor respond to [email protected]

Sometimes it is good to feel stupid—but and fragility of some pieces, not to mention ment in order to have a life outside the studio only sometimes. A few things have been sheer volume of pieces, but in some ways it’s (or to just have one minute of peace and happening recently that have made me feel a bit more complicated, because everyone quiet, damn it). But for some things—like particularly stupid. The first is that I’ve be- has their own clay, slightly different firing the way I make test tiles on the wheel, which come a father of a daughter, but since that’s temperatures, and each batch of work has a takes forever and reminds me every time I really not what this magazine is about, I different tolerance for physical stress. Even do it that I meant to find a better method won’t enumerate the many ways I’ve come the shift between a cone 04 bisque and a after the last time I threw test tiles—I re- to know myself as a well-meaning bumbling cone 04 glaze firing (not to mention the ally don’t have a better reason than, “That’s idiot. The other is that I’ve been firing a lot of shift between laughing and screaming in a the way I’ve always done it.” And I know work made by oth- how unacceptable er people, which is a reason this is— teaching me that it’s a non-reason, I’m not such hot really. It means, stuff. Here’s why: “I don’t want to We’ve been think about it recording a lot enough to find a of DVD foot- better way.” That age recently for can be infuriat- the Ceramic Arts ing if you’re asking Daily Presents someone else for a DVD series, and reason (particularly that means a lot a three month old of great ceramic who has no con- talent has been cept of your frus- coming through tration—let alone town demonstrat- the ability to com- ing techniques, municate complex making work, and thought) or even making friends. if you’re asking For several of these yourself. Routines I thought you’d rather see the “hoops” I jump through to make test tiles than those I jump through projects, I’ve been trying to get my daughter to just please, please, please go to sleep—even though the latter is can be tools of firing the work that arguably far more humorous and entertaining. self-preservation was made so we in the studio, but can show the finished pieces on the DVD, matter of seconds) has required me to stop it’s important to shake them up sometimes and while I seem to have worked out a now- and think more specifically about what I’m as it forces you to apply your knowledge and almost-unconscious firing cycle that is just doing and how everything might affect the problem solving skills in a different way. It’s perfect for the thickness of the ware I make results. I have been reminded that I had a stimulating challenge, but perhaps I’ll keep and the density of the stack, I’ve had to pay only figured things out for me, my work, it to one at a time. Right now, re-examining a bit more attention since I’ve been firing my clay, my glazes, and I’ve actually found firing schedules is enough. Revamping the the work of other people in my kiln. (This it interesting to feel stupid (maybe ignorant way I make test tiles will have to wait (there may or may not have anything to do with is a better word?) about something I thought is a mountain of baby clothes to wash and the way I also seem to be able to maneuver I had mastered a long time ago. too many diapers to change). half consciously through my day due to the This has also made me re-assess other nighttime habits of our daughter). I’m sure blind routines I’ve developed for many other it’s nothing like the job of a kiln tech at a studio tasks in addition to firing. I think we school with a large ceramics program in all do it, perhaps out of the need for reliabili- terms of variations in form, thickness, scale, ty or a necessary component of time manage-

10 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 11 letters email [email protected]

Studies two countries manufacture these and are Thank you again for an excellent issue; This painting was my second in a study of known to have lax environmental standards, one I will hold on to for quite a while. ceramics through paintings. The first was are we, who use this product, encouraging Tig Dupre, Port Orchard, Washington pastel and acrylic, and this is collage, using environmental degradation of these regions? various scraps of color to create the image of I recognize that potters are minor consumers The Exclusivity of Mingei of stains and our using or boycotting them The June/July/August issue of Ceramics would have little consequence, but it has Monthly has arrived, and I’ve had time to raised the issue of the environmental costs in read most of it. I am confused by the article, our closed-world system for me. I have not “Selling Mingei” [p. 28]. I’ve made done the same research on cobalt oxide or any since 1967, so I remember the furor about other material used in pottery making, but I the difference between “art” and “craft.” I think it is worth an article and the research thought the thrust of this debate was to raise needed to give us some idea of the environ- the “craftsperson” to the status of “artist,” mental costs of the materials we use. thereby making monetary compensation Thank you for your careful attention to greater for the craftsperson. I admit I never technological issues in Techno File. I appreci- cared one way or the other and thought the ate that correct chemical details are provided. whole thing was rather silly; I just wanted Ann Hess, Christiansburg, Virginia to make pots. However, because of all that was written and published in all the craft Working magazines and other publications, all the I loved the coverage of working potters [June/ illustrations of clay objects that might or July/August]. Wonderful individual solutions might not have been pots, and the continu- to the problems that each of us has, especially ing emphasis on anything made of clay be- in this economy. I hope this is an ongoing ing an “art object,” I see many people who direction for your coverage. seem to think that a display of work in clay Bennett Bean, Blairstown, New Jersey is bound to be way out of their reach finan- cially. We have created the perception that A Keeper we are “artists,” and therefore a little above someone throwing. My instructor, Mr. Staf- Great job on the June/July/August issue! This the average person. ford, donated some Ceramics Monthly issues to one definitely goes into my personal archives. This said, I wonder why Warren MacK- add another twist to the piece. I enjoyed the The articles are most informative, from the enzie and the galleries that represent him process a lot and am hoping to continue this “Glaze Unity Formula” Techo File to the would think they can or should control the theme through my senior year in high school. “Hourly Earnings Project” feature. I especially secondary market for his work. How can they Lydia Weiant, Columbus, Ohio enjoyed reading of other production potters’ be upset, even if what is happening does not experiences and how much of their time is fit with MacKenzie’s philosophy about his Lydia, we typically don’t condone the destruction spent on production versus bookkeeping. I work, when someone invests in a piece and of our magazine, but in this case we approve! can now compare their division of time to then sells the item at a profit? MacKenzie And we’re signing you up for a subscription so my own. Particularly revealing is the time has been promoted as larger than life by your you don’t destroy any more of your instructor’s spent on internet sales. As a relatively new magazine as well as others over the years. He copies. Keep up the good work!—Eds. venue for sales, I have hesitated getting into deserves that recognition for all he has con- internet advertising, but I may just jump in tributed to the field. Why would a purchaser Toxicity and Responsibility with a splatter of clay and see what happens. not look on his work as an investment? If I Cadmium oxide is toxic. When I researched As usual, the pictures are inspiring, from owned a Picasso, I would consider that an inclusion stains, I learned very little of the the beautiful dinner set on the cover by Emily investment and expect to get a good return toxicity testing done on them. What I learned Free Wilson, to the vessels by Fritz Rossmann. on the investment. is that these are manufactured in India and I’ve been energized to do some experimenta- I understand the Mingei philosophy and . The process involves washing the tion with glazes and forms in , and very much agree with it. However, I do not fritted materials to assure the end user of more “pushing the envelope” with wheel- agree that any artist can, or should, control a safe product. However, since only these thrown and altered forms. the secondary market for his or her work.

12 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Limiting the number of pots sold to a cus- recipes to you. To my knowledge, none of the potters hard pressed for funds, simpler ap- tomer seems to me to be making the work formulas that you printed in that article have proaches are a better. even more exclusive. ever undergone any of the tests that I have Lili Krakowski, Constableville, New York Ann Sciba, Wharton, Texas described above. Pottery being called, flame- ware, flameproof, or ovenware carries with it Bananas Proof in Testing a responsibility far greater than that of pottery Ahhhhh, yes, finally, Friday comes to our tiny The Techno File section has been a welcome being produced from stoneware or island. The beginning of our weekend—or addition to your periodical in my opinion. It because of its implied use, and pretty pictures as we like to say in Key West, the strong end. is usually the first section I read, and I have in your magazine of so-called flameware or ov- As the sun sets on another fulfilling day of always found it to be accurate and informa- enware won’t make up for the lack of properly tive. However, the May 2011 installment on documented and published test results. flameware was flawed in my humble opinion, George J. Chechopoulos, Nordland, Washington not by what was said concerning the technical issues, but by information both included and Wasting Material omitted in the section “Weighing the Risks” on Having spent a good deal of my life in glaze, page two of the article. It should have included I read the Techno File “Glaze Unity Formula” the necessary testing procedures required to [June/July/August, p. 14] with interest. Sev- ensure a properly designed and functioning eral points in the article make me wonder: flameware clay body and glaze. And to make Why are we doing all this? Why use a grid? matters worse, the “Note” at the bottom of the Why make up two kilos of glaze (which, at page might as well have said, “Disclaimer, dis- current cost of materials, is no small expense)? claimer, disclaimer!” Did your attorney write Every potter should know how to calculate a that paragraph for you? By the way, have you glaze formula. It’s a basic idea, like everybody ever seen Pyrex break on the stove top? I have. knowing how to swim. But the shot-in-the- The word flameware implies that the ware dark approach implied here is a waste of time can be used not only in the oven but also on and money. Formulas are at their most useful the stove top, and customers purchasing this in eliminating glaze flaws. If one needs to test ware from potters have every right in assum- a recipe on one’s clay body, a grid is purpose- ing that the potter has performed all necessary less. If one produces functional ware, one testing to ensure its flawless performance over checks the formula to see if the alumina and time. Testing as noted in your article implies silica are high enough for food safety. Only that the COE or CTE (same thing) is less then does one mix up the recipe, fire it, and than 2x10-6/°C (2 parts per million) for the correct whatever is not right. clay body and that the glaze expansion is 5% For basic exploration, a 100g test of a clay creation, my wife and I (both potters) to 15% below that of the clay body. Testing given recipe suffices. If I am trying to develop were thrilled to discover the double score of should also include the following at a mini- a glaze of my own, I first test recipes for “simi- ripe bananas off the tree and the new issue of mum: Dilatometric testing of the clay body lars” from books, magazines, or friends, then Ceramics Monthly waiting for us when we got and glazes to ensure their compliance with the calculate the formulas of these glazes, and home from the studio. Great issue everyone. CTE values mentioned above; acid resistance test them. I am then ready to formulate an Continue to perpetuate the genius of this testing of the glazes; water absorption testing “improved” recipe, and try it with two 100g ancient form. We go bananas for it! of the clay body to ensure proper vitrification; batches, in a straight line blend. I can do two Adam Russell, Kelly Lever, Key West, Florida and finally extensive thermal shock testing to and a half straight line blends of 100g each ensure the long term performance of what is for your 500 gram grid corners. Correction being called flameware pottery. I am not denigrating grids, but their use- In “Oil Spot and Hare’s Fur Glazes” (page After all of the warnings against producing fulness comes when one is fine tuning color, 77 of the May issue) we listed the recipe for flameware, you print formulas for clay bodies opacification, and possibly/probably firing John’s SG-12 glaze as having 20.06% bone and glazes that have never been supported cycles. In my frugal opinion, grids are a waste ash, when the recipe only requires 2.06%. We with any published test results by either Ce- of material (money) when first formulating apologize for this typo. All other percentages ramics Monthly or by the people supplying the a glaze. Right now, with both schools and in the recipe are accurate.—Eds.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 13 techno fILe

lithium by Dave Finkelnburg Lithium is the lightest chemical element used in ceramic work. In fact, hydrogen and helium are the only known elements that are lighter. Because lithium is such a powerful flux, adding even a small amount of it to a glaze recipe can produce a big change in the fired result.

Defining the Terms The Well Rounded Flux Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE)—The Lithium is a powerful, useful, alkaline glaze flux. It brightens glaze colors much amount of change in dimension of a material in like sodium and potassium do. However, lithium also promotes clearer transparent response to a given change in temperature. Both linear and volumetric CTE are measured, glazes and lowers both the melting point and the viscosity of glazes even more so it’s important to know which is being discussed. than sodium or potassium. Lithium also contributes to a harder fired glaze surface Linear CTE, which is typically used in ceramics, than either of those fluxes. It is well known as a flux in flameware clay bodies (see is a very small number and is expressed in “Techno File: Flameware” May 2011, CM). -6 scientific notation: nx10 /ºF, where n is different Lithium dramatically lowers the linear coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of for each material. glazes and clay bodies. This is part of why lithium is so useful in reducing susceptibility Shivering—A glaze fault, occasionally called of flameware to thermal shock. However, the amount of lithium used must be peeling, in which the glaze is in such powerful carefully controlled. Too much lithium in a glaze is certain to cause that glaze to compression that it cracks and can literally pop off the ware. The root cause is that the glaze has a shiver from most ordinary clay bodies. Too much lithium also causes the formation much smaller CTE than the body and thus does not of crystals, effectively turning a clear glaze opaque. shrink as much during cooling. Magnesium is the only flux that has a lower CTE than lithium. Potassium and sodium, Crazing—A glaze condition in which the glaze have CTEs on the order of five times larger than that of lithium, and the alkaline cracks because it is in tension with the clay body, earth fluxes (calcium, barium, and strontium) have CTEs twice as large as lithium. typically causing craze lines. Crazing weakens Chemically, lithium is termed an alkali metal. It occurs in the same group of flux 1 1 ware by about /4 to /5 the strength of uncrazed elements as the familiar sodium and potassium. When lithium reacts with other ware. Crazing is only considered a fault where it is elements to form chemical compounds, covalent bonds result. These very strong unintended. Craze lines are sometimes emphasized for a decorative effect by filling the cracks with a bonds are the reason lithium contributes higher hardness to glazes than either colored stain or oxide, or rubbing with tea or ink. sodium or potassium.

Sources of Lithium

Cone 04 Cone 6 Cone 10 Lithium Carbonate—A synthetic, slightly water soluble lithium source most often produced by reacting concentrated lithium chloride brine with a carbonate. Lithium carbonate

contains about 40% Li2O.

Fired results: At cone 04, 6, and 10, LiCO3 fully melts and is extremely reactive; is slightly greenish and crusty at cone 04; is more mottled in color at cone 6; shivering occurs on the top ridge of the crucible and crystals form at cone 10.

Petalite—A naturally occurring lithium feldspar typically

containing between 3.5 and 5% Li2O. Fired results: Remains white, does not melt and is non- reactive at cone 04 and cone 6; at cone 10 is white, melts slightly with a bit of sheen, is similar to the way feldspars melt.

Spodumene—the most readily available naturally occurring lithium source, a lithium aluminum silicate mineral typically

containing between 5.5 and 8% Li2O. Fired results: At cone 04, 6, and 10, no melting occurs, is non-reactive and remains similar to the raw material.

All tests fired on stoneware in a neutral atmosphere.

14 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Lithium in Moderation As a rule of thumb, use no more than 0.2 moles of Li2O per mole be to substitute a small amount of lithium carbonate and produce of total fl uxes on any functional glaze at any fi ring temperature. a dramatic change in the recipe and the fi red results. The CTE of However, even half that amount can cause shivering, so glaze fi t (the the recipes indicate the original 4-3-2-1 recipe is likely to fi t most degree of mismatch between glaze and clay body CTE) will usually stoneware clay bodies. Lithium A, however, might shiver off those determine how much lithium is too much. same but will fi t many which are formulated Successfully using lithium as a glaze ingredient requires careful to have lower CTEs similar to glazes. Lithium B may even shiver off control of the glaze chemistry. The chart to the right shows three some porcelains. glaze recipes that illustrate this. The fi rst glaze, 4-3-2-1, was made popular by Bernard Leach. The Lithium A RECIPE 4-3-2-1 Lithium A Lithium B and Lithium B recipes are, chemically, almost identical Custer Feldspar 40.0 13.4 6.2 to the Leach 4-3-2-1. They differ only in that the Lithium A recipe replaces about half of the sodium Spodumene (Gwalia) 20.8 and potassium of the 4-3-2-1 with lithium, while the Lithium Carbonate 3.0 Lithium B recipe replaces more than three quarters. Silica 30.0 42.1 40.9 Simple substitutions, right? Look at how dramatically Whiting 20.0 19.8 20.7 different the Lithium A and Lithium B recipes are from the original. EPK Kaolin 10.0 21.7 11.4 Only 3% lithium carbonate was added to Lithium A, Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 but to remove a molar equivalent amount of sodium and potassium, collectively, it was necessary to remove two UNITY MOLECULAR FORMULA thirds of the Custer feldspar from the original 4-3-2-1 Li20 0.00 0.15 0.20 recipe. Silica and alumina, which had been supplied by the feldspar, were then added back in the form of silica Na20 0.07 0.03 0.01 (about 50% more) and kaolin (more than doubled). K20 0.16 0.06 0.03

Just over 20% spodumene was added to Lithium B. R20 0.24 0.24 0.24 To remove a molar equivalent amount of sodium and R0 0.76 0.76 0.76 potassium, collectively, it was necessary to remove Al203 0.40 0.40 0.40 85% of the Custer feldspar. Because spodumene is Si02 3.94 3.93 3.93 similar to feldspar, the silica and kaolin amounts in the recipe changed little. The point of the glaze chart is not to present recipes COEFFICIENT OF THERMAL 7.1×10-6/°F 6.02×10-6/°F 5.69×10-6/°F for studio use, but rather to show how easy it can EXPANSION

4-3-2-1 Lithium A Lithium B

The 4-3-2-1 is a basic, transparent, no frills glaze. When fired to cone 8 on porcelain, there was some crazing within an opaque matte finish. With the addition of 3% LiCO3 in Lithium A, or 21% spodumene in Lithium B, the result is very similar in surface and color, but without crazing. Rather than working as simple one-to-one substitutes for other fluxes, lithium is such a light element that it is more powerful per gram than any other flux and thus fewer grams of flux are necessary to produce a desired result than with any other flux.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 15 tIPS AnD tooLS

passive recycling by Diane Gee Here’s great tip to recycle your clay scraps or throwing slurry. After the initial setup, gravity does all work while you move on to more exciting things, like making pots.

To get started, place a lid on a bucket and drill holes around the lid and across the middle. Take caution to not go crazy, too many holes will damage the structural integrity of the lid. Turn the other bucket upside down, and drill similar holes in the bottom. Assemble the system in the following order, from bottom to top: 1) Cart (to easily move the assembly around the studio) 2) Bucket without holes 3) Lid with holes 4) Bucket with holes in the bottom 5) Pillowcase (trimmed of stray threads) tucked in the top bucket like a trash can liner 6) Lid without holes When you have slurry, just dump it in the top bucket; the water drains through the pillowcase, the bucket bottom and lid, and collects in the bottom bucket. Periodically, just lift off the top section and empty the water from the bottom section. Stir the clay in the pillowcase every few days to fl ush out any water pockets and scrape the pillowcase to keep the clay at the bottom. The clay in the pillowcase will thicken over time. When there is virtually no more drainage, pull the pillowcase out and put it on concrete or a plaster slab to let it dry more thoroughly. Push it around daily (in the pillow-case) to keep it drying out evenly. When it’s minimally messy, turn it out and either wedge it or put it through a pugmill. Note: You can accelerate the drying process in the bucket by leaving the top lid off and checking on it daily, as the rate it dries will vary with local humidity.

Materials List • Two 5-gallon plastic buckets with lids • Cheap pillowcases 1 • Drill with wood-borer bit ( /2 in. diameter works) • A rolling cart large enough to support a fi ve-gallon bucket (optional)

Send your tip and tool ideas, along with plenty of images to illustrate them, to [email protected]. If we use your idea, you’ll receive a complimentary one-year subscription to CM!

16 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 17 exposure for complete calendar listings see www.ceramicsmonthly.org

1 Jesse Small’s Green Knob and Green Ghost, 12 in. (30 cm) in height, porcelain, glaze, 2011. Photo: Ching Ko. “Le décor est planté,” at Fondation d’entreprise Bernardaud (www.bernardaud.fr), in Limoges, France, through October 24. 2 Chris Barnes’ Fat Cushion Bowl, 15 in. (38 cm) in diameter, wheel-thrown stoneware, 2011. 3 Sue Binns’ Three Fine Striped Jugs, 13 in. (33 cm) in height, wheel-thrown stoneware, 2011. Photo: Sussie Ahlberg. 4 Kerry Hastings’ Two Chrome Green Bowls, 14 in. (35 cm) in length, ceramic, 2011. Photo: Sussie Ahlberg. “Origin: The Contemporary Craft Fair,” at Old Spitalfields Market (www.originuk.org), in London, England, September 22–28. 1

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1 Jill Oberman’s Bloom, 24 in. (61 cm) in length, reduction fired porcelain, 2010. 2 Jury Smith’s FOV R+B, 33 in. (84 cm) in length, earthenware, glaze, casein, 2011. “In|Form,” at Clay Art Center (www.clayartcenter.org), in Port Chester, New York, October 1–29. 3 Anne-Beth Borselius’ Yellow, 13 in. (33 cm) in length, handbuilt earthenware. “Late Summer,” at Noshörningen (www.noshorningen.se), in Kalmar, Sweden, through September 21. 4 Sandra Trujillo’s One Shadow, 6 in. (15 cm) in height, porcelain, overglaze, 2011. 5 Emily Schroeder Willis’ yellow jar, 10 in. (25 cm) in height, handbuilt 2 porcelain, 2011. “Harvest: A Ceramics Invitational,” at Edwardsville Arts Center (www.artforedwardsville.com), in Edwardsville, Illinois, October 14–November 18.

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1 Astrid Sleire’s Renewaloop, concrete, earthenware, 2010. “NEW Nordic Narratives,” at Danmarks Keramikmuseum Grimmerhus (www.grimmerhus.dk), in Middelfart, Denmark, through September 25. 2 Anima Roos’ three cups, Shadows and Lights series, 6 in. (15 cm) in diameter, wheel-thrown porcelain, serigraphy transfer, 2010, at Atelier Galerie Tiramisù (www.tiramisunet.com), in Carouge, Switzerland. 3 Ann Van Hoey’s vessel, 12½ in. (32 cm) in length, earthenware, 2011, at Galerie Marianne Brand (www.galeriembrand.ch), in Carouge, Switzerland. 4 Noemi Niederhauser’s vessel, In Between Generations series, 10in. (25cm) in length, press-molded porcelain, sprayed enamel, 2010, at Atelier Renée Duc (www.renee-duc.ch), in Carouge, Switzerland. 2–4 on view at multiple locations as part of “12th Carouge Ceramics Itinerary” (www.parcoursceramiquecarougeois.ch), in Carouge, Switzerland, October 1–9.

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1 Tomoko Sakumoto’s Form 101 Form 7, 14 in. (35 cm) in length, porcelain, 2010. “57th Premio Faenza: International Competition of Contemporary in Faenza,” at International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza (www.micfaenza.org), in Faenza, , through September 25. 2 Martin McWilliam’s Multblue Jar and Bowl, 21 in. (53 cm) in height, wood fired to 2280°F (1250°C), 2010. “Form Against Time: Martin McWilliam, Ceramics 2000–2010,” at Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (www.rmo.nl), in Leiden, , through September 18. 3 Christine Ruff’s Double Bowl, 24 in. (60 cm) in length, slip-cast stoneware fired to 2190°F (1200°C), 2010. 4 Velimir Vukicevic’s Entangled, 13 in. (34 cm) in height, slab-built porcelain, 2011. 5 Zsolt Jozsef Simon’s Garden VII (detail), 28 in. (70 cm) in length, colored stoneware, 2010. “3rd International Triennial of Silicate Arts,” at Cifrapalota (www.kitsa.org), in Kecskemét, Hungary, through September 18. 3

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1 Kathy King’s Robot vs. Nature Tray, 10 in. (25 cm) in length, porcelain, clear glaze, China paint, 2011. “Kathy King,” at MudFire Gallery (www.mudfire.com), in Decatur, Georgia, through September 3. 2 Ute Großmann’s Bernhard Fettschwanz, 15 in. (39 cm) in height, stoneware, slip, glaze, 2006. “From Arcadia to Pitch Black,” at Keramion (www.keramion.de), in Frechen, Germany, September 25–January 15. 3 Jun Kaneko’s untitled dango, 62 in. (1.6 m) in height, clay, glaze, 2003. “Jun Kaneko,” at (www.gardinermuseum.on.ca), in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, through September 18. 4 Tom Phardel’s Bi Lobe Vessel, 12 in. (30 cm) in length, ceramic. 5 Steven Heinemann’s Constellation, 15 in. (38 cm) in height, slip-cast ceramic. “Steven Heinemann + Tom Phardel,” at Santa Fe Clay (www.santafeclay.com), in Santa Fe, New Mexico, through September 18.

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22 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 23 clay culture

does clay diy? by Holly Goring Over the last decade, indie craft has created a new market for artists to sell their work and has introduced a new generation of people to the world of handmade crafts. Despite the intrinsic handmade nature of ceramics, potters seem to be showing up late to the indie party.

Indie craft started as (and still is) a movement of artists, designers, ics in addition to other craft media for sale. At any one of the and craftspeople who combined historical techniques with the more established indie shows, you will find only a couple of well popular DIY handiwork to make alternative crafts independent of established potters. large, industrialized businesses. These crafters blended various levels So the question for many potters is, does ceramics fit into the indy of talent with a love of nostalgia, accessible materials, and afford- craft shows? It clearly sits outside the DIY movement; laden with his- able prices to forge a whole new aesthetic—think punk meets ’80s tory, requiring more formal instruction, and nearly impossible to do clipart meets thrift store. However, being caught between online sales from the couch. And its labor-intensive and equipment-demanding sites with limited visibility and the inaccessible traditional craft fair processes position it much higher than the generally low hurdle set model, they were left with poten- by a vast majority of indie tial customers but no sales venue. crafters setting up shop. So they simply started their own Many formally trained, fair, created a whole new market, traditional potters do not brought their online shoppers out make a great fit for the to the streets, and others joined in. indie fair. Their work ap- As the movement gained a foot peals more to a high-end hold in the craft marketplace, it gallery with a consistent became increasingly clear that collector clientele. The this alternative model no lon- traditional craft fair and ger fit into the traditional craft annual holiday studio fair model—one of traditional sale is still the best fit. For methods, singular other potters, their work mediums, and often is less traditional, is often loftier prices. For a blended with techniques solid decade now, generally not associated they have been rede- with ceramics, and has fining the whole craft an edgier aesthetic. This

fair experience. One The Circa Ceramics tent at The combination perfectly of the most popular Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, positions the artist and alternative or indie Illinois and a large bowl from the work for success in the their craft fair line. craft shows, The indie realm. Renegade Craft Fair (www.renegadecraft.com) began in 2003 in Chicago, Illinois. The Ways and Means concept grew out of a need for emerging indie makers to sell their While there definitely is a younger generation of potters selling at affordable wares at an in-person, free-to-attend venue. The popular- indie shows, shoppers of all ages can be found. The work is gener- ity of the event took off as consumer interest in indie/DIY goods ally less expensive than most ceramic work marketed to galleries and increased across the country and upon the realization that no other art collectors but similar to online sales sites. These shows have proven and craft show adequately represented the creativity of the flourishing to be a great jump start for artists who don’t quite fit into the high- indie and DIY art movements gaining momentum online. end fine art and craft fairs, haven’t had a lot of online traffic, and are looking to grow a mailing list. So Where Are the Potters? The start up cost for an indie show is much lower than the tradi- While potters are no stranger to community, only a handful of tional craft shows, so it’s easy to test out if you want to market yourself clay artists have a presence at these events. Potters at traditional in this type of venue. The booth fees are often lower and you really fine art and craft fairs (such as Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, Winterfair only need a tent and tables for set up (which you can rent at a few craft shows, American Craft Council craft shows) typically have of the more established shows) versus having an entire booth display 30 to 60 pottery specific booths. At an indie show, only five to pre-constructed and approved by the jurying committee—although ten booths will be potters—another ten or so will have ceram- both options are used.

24 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Two Approaches Indie Shows to Kansas City artist Meredith Host (www.etsy.com/shop/foldedpigs) produces two Check Out lines of ceramic work, one of which is a commercial line of repurposed called Foldedpigs that she finds perfect for indie shows. Foldedpigs has a • The Renegade Craft Fair, (6 cities) lower price point, which attracts a wider audience, and it is more time and cost www.renegadecraft.com efficient to produce the larger volume of work needed to stock the high-selling • Craft Mafia (30 cities) indie shows. Host’s other line of studio porcelain work is marketed mainly to http://craftmafia.com galleries and collectors and shown in exhibitions. • Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair, Washington, D.C. www.washingtoncitypaper.com/craftybastards • Art Star Craft Bazaar, Philadelphia, PA www.artstarcraftbazaar.com • Spring Bada Bing (Richmond Craft Mafia), Richmond, VA http://springbadabing.com • Pile of Craft (Charm City Craft Mafia), Baltimore, MD www.charmcitycraftmafia.com • Craftin Outlaws, Columbus, OH http://craftinoutlaws.com • Maker Faire, (3 cities) http://makerfaire.com • Art vs. Craft, Milwaukee, WI http://artvscraftmke.blogspot.com • Indie Craft Revolution (St. Louis Craft Mafia), St. Louis, MO http://revolutioncraftshow.com • I Made It! Market, Pittsburgh, PA http://imadeitmarket.com • The Boston Handmade Marketplace, Somerville, MA Meredith Host’s Renegade www.bostonhandmade.org/Marketplace.htm Craft Fair tent and a Skull • Indie Craft Parade, Greenville, SC and Cross-Utensils plate http://indiecraftparade.com from her Foldedpigs line. • Strange Folk Festival, O’Fallon, IL www.strangefolkfestival.com • Stitch Rock Indie Craft Show, Delray Beach, FL Chicago-based Circa Ceramics (www.circaceramics.com) has taken a different www.rockthestitch.com approach with a single line of ceramic work that they sell at both traditional and • Cowtown Indie Bazaar, Fort Worth, TX indie craft shows. In fact, last year was the turning point in which their indie www.cowtownindiebazaar.com shows made more money than their fine art fairs. • The Girlie Show, Oklahoma City, OK For both of these artists, selling at indie craft shows has also continued to http://thegirlieshow.net/home/ garner the wholesale orders that are often associated with the traditional craft • Bloomington Handmade Market, Bloomington, IN shows, proving the audience to be varied and eager. www.bloomingtonhandmademarket.com Note that not all indie shows are created equal. Indie pop ups take place • Urban Folk Art Shows, (3 cities) anywhere and everywhere and are not always organized by people who know www.urbanfolkartshows.com what they’re doing or have an established reputation and customer base. Check • Indiemade Craft Market, Allentown, PA the websites and blogs associated with the well-known shows and check out the www.indiemadecraftmarket.com • Ric Rac Roundup, Kansas City, MO work that was juried into the previous years. Explore the venues, and if you feel www.ricracroundup.com that you would fit in, apply. There is definitely an audience on the indie circuit that is underserved when it comes to ceramics.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 25 clay culture splitting wood (kilns) If you’ve always wanted to participate in a wood firing, this could be your chance. The potters who own the kilns featured here offer space in their firings in exchange for either cash, wood, or good-old-fashioned hard work.

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1 Tozan-style noborigama (30 ft. in length, 4 cham- 8 Anagama, noborigama, cone 10–14. Fee 16 Anagama (40 ft. in length), train kiln, cone 9–12. bers), cone 10–12. Membership, firing fee, and work or work exchange possibilities. Visitors wel- Fee-and work exchange; $200 or a split true cord per exchange. Visitors/volunteers welcome. Contact Gari come. Contact Joe and Terri Bruhin; Fox, AR, 10 cu.ft. of space. Visitors/volunteers are welcome Whelon, Tozan Society’s Noborigama at Tamagawa [email protected]; www.JoeBruhin.com. so long as they follow the university’s standards and University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada; [email protected]. 9 Anagama, crossdraft catenary kiln, and safety guidelines. Contact Scott Meyer, University of 2 Top-loading flat top kiln, cone 8–12. Fee ($20–40) catenary-arched train kiln, cone 8–10+. Work Montevallo, Montevallo, AL; [email protected]. or work exchange. Visitors welcome. Contact Na- exchange. Visitors welcome by appoint- 17 Anagama, train-style, and Olsen Fast Fire, cone than and Sarah Miller, Thistillium Pottery, Newberg, ment. Contact Simon Levin, Gresham, WI; 9–13. Fee or work exchange. $.04 per sq.in. Visitors OR; [email protected]; www.thistillium.com. [email protected]; http://simonlevin.com. welcome. Contact Matt Schiemann or Adam Yung- 3 Two-chambered anagama (10 ft. in length) 10 Train (95 cu. ft.), up to cone 13. Open to enrolled bluth, St. Petersburg Clay Company, St. Petersburg, with cross-draft catenary in back, cone 11. Work students only. Tuition, fees, and work exchange. FL; [email protected]; www.stpeteclay.com. exchange. Visitors willing to rough it also welcome Visitors welcome, but you must be enrolled to 18 Bourry-box wood/soda (60 cu. ft.), cone 6–11, to participate. Contact Glenn Husted, Stone Soup participate. Contact Ben Bates, College of Lake primarily to cone 10. Fee or work exchange. Studio Penn Valley, CA; [email protected]; County, Grayslake, IL; [email protected]. Guests welcome. Contact Michael Doxey, www.glennhusted.com. 11 Two-chamber catenary arch kiln, rear cham- Banished Moon Pottery, Portland, ON, Canada; 4 Anagama (250 cu.ft.), catenary arch salt ber used for soda firing and glazed ware, cone [email protected]; www.banishedmoon.com. chamber (50 cu.ft.), cone 10–13. Space oc- 10+. Fee or work exchange. Contact Justin 19 Anagama, cone 8–12, glassagama (woodfired casionally available for work exchange. Contact Rothshank, Rothshank Artworks, Goshen, IN; with a chamber for glassblowing), cone 10–12. Paul Herman, Great Basin Pottery, Zamboni [email protected]; www.rothshank.com. Fee-or work exchange. Small cash donation or wood Springs, CA; [email protected]; 12 Anagama (150 cu. ft.), cone 9–13, anagama (75 donation, plus loading, preparation, firing, and un- www.greatbasinpottery.com. cu. ft.), cone 9–13. Fee-based system. Visitors wel- loading. Additional help or visitors welcome. Contact 5 Anagama (150 cu.ft.), bourry box kiln (40 cu.ft.), come. Contact Daniel Evans, Bloomington Clay Stu- Fred Herbst, Corning Community College, Corning, cone 9–12+. Combined fee per cu.ft. and work dio, Bloomington, IN; [email protected]; NY; [email protected]; www.corning-cc.edu. exchange. Contact Nancy Utterback, Boulder Wood http://bloomingtonclaystudio.com. 20 Anagama (60 sq. ft. stacking room), cone Fire Group and City of Boulder Pottery Lab, Boulder, 13 Modified manabigama-style, cone 10–12. Fee 10+. Open to workshop participants and stu- CO; [email protected]. and work exchange. Anyone seriously interested in dents. Non-enrolled students are welcome to 6 Train-style kiln (63 ft. in length), cone 9–12. Space learning is welcome. Contact Mike Hayes, Henryville, visit. Contact Bryan McGrath, Ceramics Dept., available every other year to summer residents. $250 IN; [email protected]. Pratt MWP, Utica, NY; [email protected]; per two-week residency, not including materials. 14 Single-chamber, interior firebox kiln (140 http://prattmwpclay.blogspot.com Work during firing also required. Visitors are welcome. cu.ft.), work exchange for 10–12 cu.ft.; small 21 Noborigama (double catenary cross-draft Contact Stephen Grimmer, University of Manitoba, train kiln, cone 11, work exchange, space climbing kiln), second chamber used for soda / Winnipeg, MB, Canada; [email protected]; varies. Contact Matthew Gaddie, Bard- salt (70 cu.ft.), cone 11. $160 for a 5 cu.ft. share, http://ltc.umanitoba.ca/blogs/grimmer. stown, KY; [email protected]; to full kiln rentals at $1200. Both fee and par- 7 Noborigama (300 cu. ft. ), cone 6–10. Com- www.meadowspottery.com. ticipation expected. Visitors always welcome. bined fee (through classes and workshops) and 15 Manabigama, cone 10–12. Fee or workshop. Contact Jim Dugan, Baltimore Clayworks, Balti- work-exchange. Internships/ mentorship program $200 includes place to stay, and some meals more, MD; [email protected]; and assistantships also available. Contact JD Visitors and volunteers are welcome. Contact Mark www.baltimoreclayworks.org. Jorgenson, Jorgenson Pottery, St. Joseph, MN; Issenberg, Lookout Mountain Pottery, Rising Fawn, 22 Catenary arch kiln (70 cu. ft.), cone 8–10. $.01 [email protected]; www.jorgensonpottery.com. GA; [email protected]. per cu.in. or help with firing. Visitors and volunteers

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welcome. Contact Dick Heiser, Pumpkin Creek Pottery, ment. Contact Saga Jepsen, Kivik, Sweden; 39 Anagama (10 meters in length), bourry box type Castle Hayne, NC; [email protected]; [email protected]; www.sagakeramik.se. kiln (40 cu. ft.), cone 8–13. Work exchange. Contact www.pumpkincreekpottery.com. 32 Anagama (5 m. in length). Fee or work exchange. Graeme John Wilkie, Qdos Arts, Lorne, Victoria, 23 Anagama (100 cu.ft.), cone 12–14. Work ex- Visitors welcome. Contact Dormante Steponaviciene, Australia; [email protected]; www.qdosarts. change. Contact Trevor Youngberg, Woodbridge, near Vilnius, Lithuania; [email protected]. com; www.woodfiredceramics.com.au. CT; [email protected]. 33 Smokeless down-draft wood kiln, smokeless 41 Hybrid downdraft anagama, hybrid ven- 24–25 Bourrigama (14 ft. in length), wood-raku kiln updraft test kiln, cone 10–12. Fee or work exchange. turi tunnel kiln, cone 9–12. Open to workshop (small), Little River anagama, (27 ft. in length and Visitors and volunteers welcome. Contact Caroline participants or students for work exchange. located in Simonds, Canada), at least 1300°C. Work Cheng, PWS Experimental Factory, , Visitors welcome with advance notice. Contact exchange. Volunteer opportunities available. Con- PR China; [email protected]; Ben Richardson, Ridgeline Pottery, Sandford tact Yolande and Lee Horus Clark, Clark Wood Fire, www.potteryworkshop.org. Tasmania, Australia; [email protected]; Knowlesville, NB, Canada; [email protected]; 34 Three anagamas, climbing kiln, Ittekoi-style www.benrichardson.com.au. www.clarkwoodfire.com. fast-firing one chamber kiln, 1300°C. Normal firings 42 Anagama (9 meters in length), wood-fired salt 26 Downdraft, sprung-arch kiln with two under-cham- restricted to resident artist and cultural center kiln, cone 12–13. Work exchange. Visitors welcome ber fireboxes (50 cu.ft.), catenary arch soda-glaze use, but an entire kiln can be rented. Visitors by arrangement. Contact Ian Jones and Moraig kiln (30 cu.ft.), cone 10–12. Space occasionally welcome by appointment. Contact Mr. Michio McKenna, Laughing Frog Pottery, Gundaroo, available for fee or work exchange. Contact Joe Sugiyama, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, NSW, Australia; [email protected]; Finch, Cardigan, Wales, UK; [email protected]; Institute of Ceramic Studies, Koka City, ; www.oldsaintlukesstudio.com.au. www.joefinchkilns.co.uk. [email protected]; www.sccp.jp. 43 Two anagamas, bourry box, phoenix fast fire, 27 Catenary arch (1 cu.m), 1300°C+. Fee for course 35 Small noborigama (two chambers, fits about train kiln, trolley kiln. All fired to cone 11. Fee or work (two available) and one month’s stay. Contact 300 pieces), cone 8. Fee-based system (2 pieces, exchange. Visitors welcome with advance notice. Christine Pedley, La Borne, Henrichemont France; approximately $80). Workshop participants also Contact Janet Mansfield, Gulgong, NSW, Australia; [email protected]; www.chris-pedley.eu. receive space. Discounts for larger quantities [email protected]; www.janetmansfield.com. 28 Tunnel kiln (7 m. in length, 3 cu.m. stacking and work exchange. Contact Naomi Tsukamoto, 44 Anagama/ogama, cone 9–12. Fee with work space), 1300–1320°C. Work exchange. Contact Eric Kinpo Kiln, Takara Clay Studio, Kamakura, Japan; exchange/trade potential. All reasonable offers Soulé, Saint Martin, Durfort Lacapelette, France; [email protected]; www.takaranoniwa.com. considered, accommodations available. Con- [email protected]; www.ericsoule.fr. 36 Anagama, cone 10–12. Work exchange. Visitors tact Rowley Drysdale, Cooroy, Queensland, 29 Anagama-noborigama hybrid, cone 10–12. Fee are welcome. Contact Cher Shackleton, Mossman Australia; [email protected]; and/or work exchange. Visitors welcome. Contact Park, WA, Australia; [email protected]; www.rowleydrysdale.com.au. Marnic De Lange, Geraardsbergen, Belgium; www.shackletongallery.com. [email protected]; www.marnic.be. 37 Olsen-style kiln for salt glazing, Olsen-style glaze This list is based on a map of wood kiln sites 30 Extended throat bourry box. (35 cu.ft.), located ware kiln (both 60–70 cu.ft.), cone 10–12, anagama started and maintained by Simon Levin, with in Sufers, Switzerland, cone 10+. Both fee and work (under construction). Fee or work exchange. Contact help from Josh Harmony, on Levin’s website exchange, accommodations available. Visitors Greg Crowe, Hovea Pottery, Hovea, WA, Australia; (http://simonlevin.com/worldmap). There are many welcome. Contact Eric Nelson, Zurich, Switzerland; [email protected]; www.gregcrowe.com.au. more sites listed on his map, but please note that not [email protected]; www.ericnelson.biz. 38 Modified anagama (3–4 cu.m.), cone 11–13. all of them have space to share. 31 Wood-fired fast fire downdraft salt kiln (1.5 cubic Space occasionally available for work exchange. Want to know more about getting your wood kiln on meters), cone 13. Space is sometimes available Contact Stewart Scambler, York, WA, Australia; the map? It’s based on self reporting, so check out for work exchange. Visitors welcome by appoint- [email protected]. the site and send him your information.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 27 clay culture remembrances Taking a moment to remember those we have lost this year, and their contributions to the field of ceramics.

Ian Currie Bob Dolan Born March 15, Born September to the field of ceramic art education. Shinn 1941, in Narran- 24, 1933. Died was often noted for his love of demonstrating dera, New South January 23, 2011, and sharing his personal techniques, a passion Wales, Australia. in Phoenix, Ari- emphasized by his frequent contribution of Died May 5, zona, at the age of articles to Pottery Making Illustrated magazine. 2011, in Bris- 77. Unsatisfied bane, Queens- with the quality Paul Soldner land, Australia, at of pottery trim- Born April 24, the age of 70. Known for his deep under- ming tools on the market, Robert “Bob” L. 1921, in Sum- standing of glazes, Currie developed the “Grid Dolan created ergonomic handmade tools merfield, Illinois. Method,” an organized systematic approach that could hold a fine edge. Dolan Tools, the Died January 3, for studying glaze variations, and has con- company he founded, continues to sell the 2011, in Clare- ducted numerous lectures and workshops highly revered tools he designed. mont, California, worldwide on the subject. Currie authored at the age of 89. two books, Stoneware Glazes: A Systematic Elsa Rady Perhaps best Approach, viewable for free on his website Born July 29, known for popularizing raku in the United (http://stonewareglazes.currie.to), as well as 1943, in New States by developing a low temperature salt- Revealing Glazes: Using the Grid Method. York City, New fuming technique, Soldner also founded Photo courtesy of Nell Azuri. York. Died Janu- Soldner Pottery Equipment to sell his highly ary 29, 2011, in popular clay mixers and wheels. Solder taught Stephen De Staebler Culver City, Cali- at Scripps College between 1957 and 1991 Born March 24, fornia, at the age and started the annual Scripps Ceramics In- 1933, in Saint of 67. Often re- vitational exhibition during his tenure. He Louis, Missouri. garded as one of the leading contemporary also helped to found the Anderson Ranch Arts Died May 13, artists in the field, Rady is known for her ex- Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado. 2011, in Berke- quisite porcelain vessels, including the well ley, California, at received Cycladic Swing series. Currently in the Toshiko Takaezu the age of 78. collections of many major museums and in- Born June 17, Known for his stitutions including the Smithsonian Ameri- 1922, in Pe- large-scale, fragmented figurative sculptures, can Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of peekeo, Hawaii. De Staebler worked both in clay as well as Art, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Died March 9, cast bronze, placing a strong emphasis on Rady’s work was included in the notable 200- 2011, in Hono- the process in which the work was created. year historical survey exhibition “Craft in lulu, Hawaii, at De Staebler taught sculpture at San Fran- America: Expanding Traditions” in 2007. the age of 88. cisco State University from 1967 to 1995 Photo courtesy of Greenwich House Pottery. Takaezu was and received numerous awards including the known for her closed-form vessels with a Zellerbach Memorial Prize in Sculpture, the William Shinn traditional Japanese pottery influence, as National Endowment for the Arts Fellow- Born November well as her expressive glaze surfaces and ship, and the Guggenheim Foundation Fel- 17, 1932, in Gar- signature “Makaha Blue” glaze. Highly re- lowship. Widely commissioned and den Grove, Cali- garded for her influential teaching style, exhibited, De Staebler’s works are in the fornia. Died April Takaezu taught at Princeton University from collections of many major museums and 25, 2011, in San- 1967 to 1992, where she received Princeton’s institutions including the Smithsonian ta Maria, Califor- three highest honors, the Behrman Award American Art Museum, Metropolitan Mu- nia, at the age of for Distinguished Achievement in the Hu- seum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, 78. William “Bill” manities, the Belknap Visitorship in the and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Shinn taught at Hancock College from 1962 Humanities, and an honorary degree as Photo: Philip Ringler. to 1988, and was known for his contributions Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa.

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 29 studIo vIsIt ulrich schumann Berlin, Germany

Just the Facts Studio I work in a 80-square-meter studio in the Pankow section of Berlin. The studio is very close Clay white stoneware to the Pankow Schlosspark (palace grounds), and is also right next to the Panke Creek. The Primary forming methods combination makes the studio feel as if it is located in nature. When the weather is nice, the handbuilding and press molding us- outside area is useful for making large work. ing plaster molds My favorite aspect of the studio is the fact that I live directly across from it. My least favorite Primary firing temperature aspect is that if I work a lot, the space becomes smaller and smaller, because each piece I make 1170 C (2138 F) has to dry for up to twelve weeks before it is fired. Tools and molds are stacked up until they Favorite surface treatment reach the ceiling, and little actual workspace remains. inlay and sprayed stencil designs with As my pieces are large scale, I have specific equipment to help make the work manageable. colored or black and white engobes When moving the large greenware forms and molds, I use an overhead hoist and a forklift. I Favorite tools was able to finance the purchase of the forklift using a pension insurance fund that I received I use my slab roller a lot, both for cre- ating slabs and for enlarging surface to help me reintegrate into my work life after recovering from a serious illness. I use the forklift decorations, but for a favorite tool it to move and position the pieces in the kiln, and to set the plaster board they’re sitting on onto really has too many technical flaws firebricks. The transfer from the plaster bat to the kiln shelf takes place on sand. In the process, and problems. the grains of sand function like ball bearings. When building my work, very heavy slab-built pieces are first laid on a support structure matching the shape of the mold interior that has an attachment for a hook on the back so that the hoist can be used to lift it and position it in the outer mold. The interior support structure can be clamped to the outer mold wall, holding the clay slab sandwiched in place while it dries. When the piece is leather hard, the support structure is hooked to the hoist again, the slab and support are removed from the mold and laid onto boards. When the second half, still in the mold, is ready for joining, the hoist is used again to line up the pieces.

30 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Paying Dues (and Bills) and had up to 45 employees. I worked there until 2001. After my I am actually trained as an engineer, and have worked for various illness, I stepped down from that position. You could say that the companies. I’m self taught as a ceramist, and have worked for 25 years illness provided a way back to life as a ceramic artist. as a self-employed artist. I spend between 40 and 50 hours per week in the studio. I like to start working very early in the morning, and I very rarely work in As a self-taught artist living in Germany, I’m not allowed to have the evening. I don’t have a job outside of my full-time studio work; apprentices at my studio. For larger projects, like for the “London Pots” however for about a year now, I’ve been working once a week with project I am working on now for a firm that’s renovating a historic students at a high school on a large-scale sculpture for their schoolyard. swim hall, I consult colleagues (in this case two) as outside contractors. The project with the school developed out of financial need. While Even while I was studying for my degree, I knew that I didn’t looking for ways to earn extra income, I learned from my colleagues want to be an engineer, and never did get invested into that career, that such projects existed, and called an acquaintance who worked as despite early successes. There was still an unknown quantity, a feeling a high school art teacher. It so happened that the school was looking of curiosity in me, that had something to do with art and material. for artists who wanted to work with students. Unfortunately I had So I started to experiment with various materials in my free time. to complete the sculpture in my studio as the project deadline ap- Through a coincidence, I was introduced to Berlin ceramic artist proached. The kids worked relatively slowly on the project and often Ute Greiner. From the first time I was in Ms. Greiner’s studio, I knew had to be motivated to press on. The installation at the school took that this was what I was looking for. The clay pieces in process, the place in June as part of a week-long project. Despite the difficulties workshop equipment, the techniques used to work with the clay, and in finishing the sculpture, I really enjoyed working with the students. the ambience impressed me so much that my way from that point It was a stimulating contrast to working alone in my studio. If it were forward was completely clear. I’ve followed this path for 27 years now. possible, I’d definitely pursue further projects like this. In 1991, together with a close colleague, I founded an architectural ceramics firm called Golem Formzeigel for the production of ceramic Body elements for the care of and preservation of historical monuments. Due to the demands of making work, I play sports, go jogging, We delivered molded brick, terra cotta tile, and reliefs across , and/or swim, several times a week to stay healthy and fit. I also go

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 31 skiing once a year. I have health insurance and also make sure to representation. Commissions or orders for work represent 30% of have regular check-ups. my sales, while sales at markets account for 30%. Works purchased by collectors account for the last 10% of my sales. Mind I have found that it is a big problem to be the maker and marketer In addition to reading about art, I read newspapers and detective at the same time, because both jobs require full attention and a lot of fiction (crime novels). In order to recharge creatively, I go to movies, time, but there’s only enough time for one job. On the positive side, the theater, and concerts a few times per month, finances permitting. when doing both the creative and marketing sides of the job, you Despite my other interests, my ideas for my work very rarely come get to experience the reactions customers have to your work directly. from outside influences. While I’m working on a piece, I often come If I attended to the marketing and sales side of my business more, up with new ideas for future pieces. I find it important nonetheless I wouldn’t have time to make work. If I have too much finished work to be engaged with all types of fine arts. in the studio, I contact potential customers regarding their interest, I also feel that it is important to mention that art is not every- send images of the work to them, and then if they like the available thing in life. For me, having a family and children is also important. work, I load it all into the car and visit them. Marketing My biggest success online came when a ceramics collector came across my booth at an art market. Before he bought anything, he The predominant percentage of my work is large-format ceramics. went home and looked at my website. Afterward, he came back and I only sell these in direct contact with customers that I find at art bought several large pieces from me. Today, he is the owner of the markets. The difficulty with this is that I have to load, transport, and most extensive and comprehensive collection of my work. unload pieces that are sometimes more than 200 kg (441 lb) in weight The largest disappointment or frustration I’ve had online is when I all around the country for these markets. think from the perspective of a potential customer looking for ceramic Up until now, I participated in about five markets per year. This work. Entering the usual search words, my website does not show up. January, I had a booth at a large garden show, and afterwards received It’s a problem of visibility on the web; I’m working to fix this, though. a lot of inquiries. As a result, I’m trying to do only one art market this year. Looking back, I see that I can’t make a living from pottery Most Valuable Lesson markets alone. There were often market events with almost no sales, It’s important to be your own most demanding critic. I love my work, but with all of the associated costs. but critical analysis and examination is a precondition for further work. As far as a breakdown of the ways in which I sell my work, 20% sells through retail outlets and 10% sells through gallery shows and www.schumann-keramik.de

32 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 33 Forrest Lesch-MiddeLton Beauty from Contrasts by Jeffrey Spahn

34 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Opposite: Five minaret bottles, to 18 in. (46 cm) in height, iron rich stoneware with iron transfer patterns, fired to cone 9, reduction-cooled, 2011. Above: Small dishes, 5¾ in. (15 cm) in diameter, iron rich stoneware with iron transfer patterns, fired to cone 9, reduction-cooled, 2011.

Forrest Lesch-Middelton’s pots evoke a similar response to what one American potter, born, raised, and schooled on both coasts, and gets from admiring sepia-toned photographs, antique embossed-tin has seen and incorporated many American themes. His genera- roofing, or old press-typed announcements. They hark back to a tion shares the values for the handmade from their parents of the different time in both their form and surface, yet they are made 1960s generation, as well as technological advances like iPods and today with the aid of computers and silk-screened imagery. Each global communications. For some, this leads to disassociation, but piece is timeless in feel, yet contemporary by design. for others, like Lesch-Middelton, the contrasts all seem to work. For some, this may seem like too much contrast, an aesthetic con- Lesch-Middelton always has the goal of creating beautiful tradiction, but for Lesch-Middelton and his peers, the old and new, the pots—pots people can live with and use everyday, that add to their complex and simple, mix easily with their world-view. Today’s makers kitchens, baths or living spaces—but he does not stop there. He have been raised with interdisciplinary studies, multiculturalism, and thinks deeply about the ways in which he makes his pieces, the access to every possible medium and process. Integration of complexity choice of his clays, the firing process, and decoration. His focus is the name of the game. Perhaps that is why Lesch-Middelton is so is not on production; instead he prefers to make fewer pots more comfortable throwing and handbuilding, working with multiple firing consciously. He wants them to evoke certain feelings; he talks about atmospheres, or utilizing porcelain and stoneware. Traditionalists have their sensibility and the hopes they might impart to their users, their critiques for sure, no one discipline is deep enough, etc., but like but he does not “hit the user over the head” with overt messages it or not “mixing-it-up” is here to stay. either. He subtly encourages the users of his pots to think about Lesch-Middelton is a potter very much of his time and genera- their own lives, their environment, and the cultures that affect all tion. Out of graduate school, a young father, art center administra- of us today in a global community. tor, and teacher, Lesch-Middelton is well versed in the Leachean Lesch-Middelton’s pots directly reference Islamic, Persian, Af- traditions of hand-made excellence, yet he strives for modern, ghani and Iraqi forms and decoration. At the same time, his pottery contemplative pots that reflect his reality today. His pots conjure is clearly made for a US market and for American ways of eating, up images of times and traditions long since past, but unlike the drinking, and living. Lesch-Middelton’s pots do not directly attack longings for feudal Japan shared by so many previous potters, he their viewer with overt messages about his opinions of the world, thinks about today and often looks to the Middle-East. He is an but rather they are subtle, beautiful pots that may, at times, encour-

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 35 age their owners to think deeply about where and when they were and soft porcelains are embossed with textured surfaces and patterns. made, how and why they look the way they do, and what the maker A simple sugar bowl and creamer become stacked forms, interlock- himself is like. Lesch-Middelton summed up this feeling when he ing and with contrasting patterns. One, a traditional Texan calico said, “I don’t want the work I make to be about opinion, rather I pattern, is hoisted on top of a Middle-Eastern pattern, imperial would like it to be interesting enough to beg questions about me as style. While casual coffee or tea drinkers may not immediately see a person with opinions who [also] makes pots.” Lesch-Middelton this connection, Lesch-Middelton uses this to talk about his feelings has experienced many of these cultural contrasts in his own life. when Bush invaded , and his need to make meaning of this in his Raised from mixed cultural heritage, he saw these contrasts directly. studio practice. In this way he chooses to honor everyday functional His mother is Native American, and works within indigenous com- pots, consistent with his daily values and philosophy of life. “My munities on issues of cultural oppression and trauma, and his father pots contain subtle narratives that reference the historic changes is an architect and of mixed European decent. brought about when one culture’s actions influence the course in Recently, Lesch-Middelton has been exaggerating the contrast which another culture proceeds,” Lesch-Middelton explains. in his work even further. Deep, rich, chocolate browns and blacks One of Lesch-Middelton’s innovations comes with his slip contrast with cream- and white-colored slips. Also, luscious forms and embossing techniques. Applied while the pieces are still wet

Large pitcher, 11¾ in. (30 cm) in height, iron rich stoneware with iron transfer pattern, fired to cone 9, reduction-cooled, 2011.

36 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org MonTHlY METHoD VolUMETRIC IMaGE TRanSFER by Forrest Lesch-Middelton

My work is planned layer-by-layer, both literally and fi guratively. quickly. For color, add stain to the slip, mix it, and sieve through I start with an idea, a pot that to me has the feel of a weathered a 160-mesh screen. Next, add wet wallpaper paste (a starch- place prominent in my lifetime that has also stood the test of based glue that adheres the screened image to the newsprint) history. Once the layers and materials are chosen, the process at a ratio of one-fi fth the total volume of the slip. I have found begins with a pattern. that Roman’s brand wallpaper paste for unpasted wallpaper The patterns I use primarily come from the history of the works best because you can pour it straight from the jug into Silk Road, which, to me, is a time and place in history that your screening medium. Once mixed, place a line or bead of began to defi ne the modern era. I fi ne-tune each pattern to a the medium at the top of your screen and press it through onto specifi c size and line density with the aid of Adobe Photoshop a piece of newsprint using a printmaking squeegee. Once the or Illustrator. By importing the image and adjusting color and image is on the paper, it only needs 20 minutes or so to dry and contrast, I arrive at a black, photo-ready positive to be printed on it is ready to use. When the transfer is re-wetted at a later time a polyester laser transparency. The printed transparency is then by painting a slip over the surface, it is able to stick to another laid over a light-sensitive photo silkscreen, exposed to light, and surface (think temporary tattoo)! then washed out to create the fi nal screen. When using ceramic In order to get each pattern to register around a thrown materials as a screening medium, a 156-mesh screen is best. I cylinder correctly, I have found junior high school geometry (like order pre-exposed screens through a company in Vancouver, circumference = Π × diameter) comes in handy. First, tear or cut the pattern so that the pattern lines up correctly when wrapped end-to-end into a cylinder. Next, measure the length of the pattern with a metric ruler. This measurement will be the circumference of your cylinder. Once the image is measured, divide the total length by 3.14 and round down to get the diameter of the cylinder. For example: 1 2 33 cm/3.14=10.509, or 10.5 cm. Set your calipers to 10.5 cm and you are set to throw a cylinder. Each cylinder should be completely vertical and exactly 10.5 cm across. Coat the freshly-thrown cylinder with the plain defl occulated slip using a hake brush. The defl occulated slip will dry more quickly, and will not add as much water to the form as a regular slip. This speeds up the drying process, allowing you to add the transfer sooner for more 3 4 productivity. When the cylinder is coated evenly 1 Screening slip ink onto the transfer newsprint. with the slip, coat the newsprint transfer on the 2 Coating the image on newsprint with deflocculated slip. side that contains the image. Once both surfaces 3 Carefully placing transfer newsprint around slip-coated cylinder. are tacky to the touch, lift the newsprint off 4 Bellying out the cylinder to create a pitcher, stretching the pattern along with the form. the table and stick it to the pot by wrapping it Washington, called Ryonet (www.ryonet.com). Send them an around the surface end to end, trying not to trap air bubbles image, they send you a fi nished screen. (students say that this is the trickiest part). Use a fl exible metal When printing with ceramic materials, it is important to rib to adhere the newsprint gingerly to the cylinder with vertical use a printing medium compatible with the ceramic process. strokes, starting at the bottom and moving upward. Once For colors, I use straight Crocus Martis, a naturally occurring attached, peel off the newsprint and your image is transferred 50/50 mix of black and red iron oxide, because it suits the very to the cylinder. specifi c aesthetic needs of my work. You can use any ceramic Once the image is in place it should not be touched or oxide or stain. agitated in any way or it will smear. In order to add volume to The trick to my surfaces lies in transferring the image from the image-laden vertical form, you must belly the pot out from the screen to the clay. For that you need a screening medium the interior. One issue that arose for me in working this way and some 25–30 pound newsprint. The recipe that I have found was the amount of torque that a wheel puts on the soft clay works best for a screening medium is a thick, white slip that is cylinder while it is spinning. To eliminate too much twisting, I defl occulated to the consistency of sour cream. Defl occulating carefully monitor the pattern while the pot spins, watching for the slip allows it to become fl uid with a smaller percentage of twists. As a twist occurs in the pattern, I simply begin to spin the added water, which means it will not saturate or break down wheel in reverse and further belly out the form to counteract the newsprint when screened, and dries to a usable state more the distortion.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 37 Four cups, 4½ in. (11 cm) in height, iron rich stoneware with iron transfer patterns, fired to cone 9, reduction-cooled, 2011.

to draw from so many sources and recombine them into a new form that makes his work innovative and unique. The work shares similarities within the larger context of what’s happening in contemporary crafts today. One observation is that makers today often seek decoration and embellishment. Perhaps it is because so much is already done today that the best makers spend their time and energy on decoration. Lesch-Middelton’s work has its own aesthetic while sharing this focus on surface decoration with others such as Ayumi Horie, Kari Radasch, Jess Parker, Adam Field, Kristen Kieffer, and Ursula Hargens, to name a few. If you’ve walked around a Renegade Craft Fair or surfed through the tonnage of hit-and-miss craft on Etsy, you’ll see some trends emerge among this greener, global, new-age crafting crowd I like to call, the “millennium hippies.” Printmaking, silk screening, and manipulation of digital imagery prevails. Lesch-Middelton’s slip- printed ceramics would be equally at home with organic kitchen napkins silk screened with nature motifs or the many hand-pressed cards and letter-head designs that sport romanticized imagery such Blue and white cup, 4¾ in. (12 cm) in diameter, porcelain with cobalt as old bicycles and antique typewriters; which begs the question, transfer pattern, oxidation fired to cone 10, 2010. what drives this generation to romanticize the handmade, the yester-year, and nature? Perhaps the generational pendulum is and only partially formed on the wheel, the decoration morphs swinging back to communal values, slow food, respect for local and changes as the form is shaped further during throwing, makers, and reverence for nature. Will we see a new generation expanding and distorting as a reflection of the process. Pots are of collectors who want and desire these handmade objects more formed mostly from the inside out, as evidenced by the swell- than the mass-produced Chinese imports and Ikea clutter? One ing and twisting of the exterior surfaces. He also throws in both can hope. forward and reverse directions to control the amount of torque and twist each piece achieves. Another innovation comes from the author Jeffrey Spahn is a private art dealer specializing in the way Lesch-Middelton fires. He fires the pieces to temperature, 20th-century icons of and ceramic sculpture. He has then cools the kiln down in a reduction atmosphere, sometimes contributed to Studio Potter, : A Studio Pottery Collectors introducing localized oxidation at key points in the cooling, a Guide, and recently The Art of Toshiko Takaezu. He owns and process learned from his teacher John Neely at Utah State. By no operates Jeffrey Spahn Gallery, an online secondary market resource means is he the first to do either of these processes; it’s his ability for collectors and sellers at www.jeffreyspahn.com.

38 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org An extension of the self

Bo B D lan and His Tools by Jack Troy

It was with deep sadness that I, among many others, noted the sealed in a hand-turned hardwood handle which has been soaked passing of Bob Dolan, a personal friend, and maker of some of in an oil/resin bath for moisture resistance. the finest tools any of us have ever used. Bob was a consummate Anyone who knew Bob couldn’t help noticing that he was an craftsman, approaching the design and making of tools that bear easy-going maker of friends as well as being a mentor to potters. the family name with the same care and exactitude as those who Despite being extremely myopic, and wearing glasses the thickness use them; had this not been the case, the quality of his work and of telescope lenses because of a degenerative eye condition that ours definitely would have suffered. subjected him to retinal tears, Bob was unfailingly positive. His Like any good designer, Bob loved locating, defining, and background was in finance and business, but he came to ceram- devising his own solutions to problems. Ergonomic handles and a ics and tool making naturally, with the happy relief many of us variety of scale and configurations are the result of Bob’s expertise discover in tactile pursuits. and curiosity about how he could expand and refine what he had The efficiency and usefulness of the tools makes the Dolan taught himself to do. He was largely a self-taught potter, begin- booth the first stop for hundreds of attendees at NCECA confer- ning his work with clay in the late 1970s and several years later at ences. (It’s almost voyeuristic to watch people handling Dolan Hui No‘eau Craft Center in Hawai‘i, reading all he could about the craft, as well as building a huge kick wheel and gas kiln, then selling his work at craft fairs. He also began making his own tools as the need arose, setting the goals that a tool should be an extension of the self, and that they shouldn’t get in the way of either maker or task. Shortcuts and mass marketing were never temptations. In the mid 1980s, Bob met Val Cushing, a visiting artist at Hui No’eau, and made a few tools for him. Val invited Bob to Alfred during the 1987–88 academic year, and encouraged him to continue designing and making his custom “pear pitters” (DPT 310 in the current catalog) and other trimming utensils. (I once learned that a potter touring a fruit cannery noticed a pear-corer might have another application; today, no potter’s studio lacks one with that design.) His modest foray into marketing led Bob to send tools and a hand-drawn catalog for Dolan Precision Tools tools while imagining their use; is no accident that these tributes to the 1987 NCECA conference in Syracuse, New York, followed to fine craftsmanship resonate almost sensually with ceramists.) by his appearance at the next year’s meeting in Portland, Oregon. And a spiffy new incarnation of a shop-worn favorite is always He and his wife Maureen attended every NCECA conference too good to pass up. thereafter, until illness prevented him from traveling. The tools Dolan Tools has always been, and will remain, a family enter- subsequently attracted the attention of many well-known makers, prise. Currently Susan Dolan Parke and Maureen Dolan run the several of whom offered designs or modifications of their own. business from their shop in Phoenix, Arizona. We are cheered to Bob’s dedication to details led him to select knife-grade high- know Bob’s family will maintain the legacy of tools so well made carbon steel, for its capacity to hold an edge and be re-sharpened. they are impossible to take for granted. The raw, fine-grained, top-quality US tool steel is cut, ground, and formed, then slowly heated, quenched, tempered for several hours, the author Jack Troy writes and makes pots in Huntingdon, Pennsyl- and cooled, before being fitted with a brass ferrule and rivets, then vania. To see and read more, visit www.jacktroy.net.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 39 Potter

Some time ago, I received a nickname from the Ceramic Monthly editorial staff as a “potter head hunter.” I suppose that is a rather unique position for a clay artist to hold. Since I came back to Japan in late 2008, I wore many hats in order to readjust to life here after spending approximately 15 years in the US. Now I teach at two local pottery schools, aside from working in my home studio, and also work as a part-time buyer and a coordinator for a newly opened gallery focusing on Japanese utilitarian pottery called Yakimono! (www.yakimonos.com) in Paris, France. Yakimono! is a small organization with a French owner, a Japanese sales staff on site, myself, and another French writer who recently joined us. We juggle three languages, French, English, and Japanese, and use Skype and Google Documents quite a lot in order to facilitate our cross-continental communications. The owner’s wife is Japanese, and he lived and worked in Japan for several years. He happened to see handmade pottery from Western Japan a few years ago, and was fascinated by the variety of pot- tery available in the country as a whole. Since he felt that no one was offering affordable Japanese pottery for daily use in Paris, he started Yakimono!. My responsibility in the company is quite broad. It began with extensive research on various Japanese pottery production centers; visiting ceramic related exhibits, shops, wholesalers, and fairs in the Tokyo area; and making contacts with several potters whose work would fit Yakimono!’s vision, which is more traditional than contemporary. Initially it was a bit hard for me to match their needs Naomi Tsukamoto in her test kitchen, using sample work from a variety of with my interests as the company wanted more decorative, earthy artists to get a feel for which ones might fit the Yakimono! vision. stoneware pieces, whereas my personal preference was porcelain. However, the owner gave me criteria in terms of price range, sizes Since the founder always emphasized that French people have and the types of pottery he would like to purchase. That, combined little knowledge of the usage of stoneware ceramics, as they mostly with seeing the work that the gallery already had, helped me. I use white porcelain for , we also collaborate with food search various kamamotos (literally translated as “kiln based,” as coordinators and restaurants to introduce the pottery “in action” production use the name of the kiln site as their busi- via images on our website. I coordinate the collaboration in Tokyo ness name) for works that match the criteria and vision. I have a and also introduce Japanese flower arrangement myself using my budget provided by the company, and buy samples occasionally background of Ikebana studies. from newly discovered potters in order to determine the quality I come from a potter’s family, through my father’s side. My family’s and marketability because, needless to say, I cannot always travel connection with kiln sites can be traced back for 400 years. Although to the sites. I write descriptions of the samples I buy, and write it’s not his profession now, my father grew up helping to load and reviews on them in terms of the quality and usefulness. The staff unload climbing kilns in his hometown, since pottery was the main in Paris then deals with the marketing aspects. business there for many years. One of my distant relatives was a na-

40 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Left: The sample pieces shown here are from all over Japan, from the Tohoku region in the north to Kyushu island in the south, and include works from pottery production centers such as Shigaraki, Mino, and Seto. Below: Takayuki Kawaguchi from Hakudogama Kiln in Shigaraki throwing bowls in his studio.

tional living treasure who did extensive research on blue , and a few of my uncles are potters. Many summers growing up, my family visited pottery towns in various regions. Most Japanese pottery towns are located in rural Japan and have specific regional characteristics in the aesthetics and the materials they use. This helped me develop an eye for functional ceramics at an early age even though my own work is sculptural. Right after graduate school, I held a position as an assistant to the director at Dai Ichi Arts Gallery in New York City. Working at a gallery specializing in Japanese ceramics helped me understand the field in depth, helped me map the different roles of gallerists, artists, clients, and users, and of course, helped me develop a critical meals came naturally. But now I see myself as a conscious user eye on the art business as a whole. of handmade pottery, always thinking about what food would I, too, am a maker, but the most challenging part of this job is match this specific plate or which size I need for this special dish, establishing trusting relationships and facilitating smooth communi- and what other kinds, in terms of size and designs, I would like cations with the production potters and artisans we work with. Just as to have for my cooking. a legendary artist and restaurateur Kitaoji Rosanjin once commented, I think meeting potters on site visits has really inspired me “Vessels are clothing for food,” the works of these potters are humble because, in addition to discussing the techniques used, they talk and non-asserting, and so are the potters themselves. Nowadays, the about the usefulness and the functionality of the pieces they’ve ability to self-market as an artist is necessary, even in Japan, but these designed and created. Wholesale shop and gallery owners talk with potters do not see themselves as artists. In fact, they do not sign their me about what pieces will look good with food, which ones will works at all or sign the names of their kilns as the maker. They stick bring out the colors of the food. This has led me to think about to their old ways in regard to lifestyle and communication. Most of functional work in a different way. them do not use email. Some do not even like phone calls and prefer Having established potters in my family, I was never eager to to speak in person. They create work based on commissions, and make functional ceramics as I always felt that I could never com- the business negotiation is never easy because, even though this is pete. Now, slowly but surely, my desire to create functional works starting to change, the potters are used to having wholesalers as the is growing. That is the best gift I’ve received from this interesting mediators and leaving the marketing to someone else. opportunity, and perhaps that is my next step as a clay artist. The nice surprise is what I have learned from this job. The rewards that come with it are the new-found friendships with the the author Naomi Tsukamoto is an instructor at Takara Clay Studio potters and the variety of sample pottery, which now occupies (www.takaranokama.com), and now lives and works in her hometown my small kitchen. Growing up in Japan, using ceramics for daily of Fujisawa, Japan.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 41 one, The Last Supper plates humanize a sect of society typically disregarded by the general public. The series title is heavy with religious connotations, recalling the story of Christ and the fi nal meal he shared with his disciples LAST before the betrayal by Judas. In the book of Corinthian, Paul the Apostle recounts Jesus as stating of the meal, “Do this in remem- brance of me.” Green has framed the last suppers of the inmates as a form of remembrance and in parallel to Jesus’ experience, the SUPPER prisoners approach the meal knowing it is their last. Green pro- by Megan Fizell duced the project “to prod and to encourage discussion on capital punishment” and her use of a provocative title clearly highlights her anti-death penalty stance. She continues the religious comparison The plates, often hung in a mass upon the wall, assume the non- by painting the plates with the color reserved for the mother of confrontational, blue and white appearance of the medium’s most Christ. Pope Pius V standardized liturgical color coding in the popular color-combination. Julie Green’s (www.greenjulie.com) 16th century and due to the rarity and cost of the color blue, it “The Last Supper” series features the illustrations of fi nal meal was chosen to honor the Virgin Mary.1 The color of the mineral requests by death row inmates in the United States. The menus, paint she uses works to further humanize the inmates, reminding gleaned from newspaper clippings and websites, highlight the fi nal the viewer that each meal was consumed by a person, someone wish and desires of those condemned to death. What do these foods who had a mother. say about the people who choose them? From the lingering taste From the Persian tiles in the mosques of the to the of fried chicken to the birthday cake for a man who never had Chinese porcelain of the and 18th century European

42 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 2

1 3

1 Installation detail of the 2006 exhibition “The Last Supper” at the Art and Design Gallery at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Photo: Robert Hickerson. 2 Installation view of the 283 plates as part of the 2008 exhibition “Criminal,” at San Francisco State University in San Francisco, California. Video collaboration with Colin Murphey. Photo: Andrew Bird. 3 Installation view of the 2008 exhibition “The Last Supper Table” at Reed College Arts Week in Portland, Oregon. Twelve painted plates, menu place cards, chairs, tablecloth, video.

Delftware, the blue and white pattern has been appropriated and Green explains that the color has many meanings, “The blue in modified globally and historically. By using this general palette, The Last Supper refers to the , blue-plate specials, heavenly Green establishes universality throughout the collection, linking blue, and old-style prison uniforms and mattresses of navy and the meals of varied individuals. She directly references the deco- white striped fabric. Also there is something cartoon-like and rative patterns of the Chinese porcelain when painting the larger absurd about blue tacos, blue pizza, blue ketchup, blue bread.” menus “18th century inspire me; some of those Green paints the menus of The Last Supper series on ap- designs look so contemporary. After seeing these, now I often divide propriated dishes she collects from shops and stores. The plates big meals into sections, instead of an overview or receding foods.” range from delicate white porcelain to heavy cream crockery Historically, the blue and white palette began with the Persians and the foods from each menu inform the choice of dish, “For who developed cobalt as a glaze and used the blue tiles to represent dinner food, a heavy plain plate would be appropriate. If the heaven in their mosques.2 The religious context established by the meal is lasagna and shrimp, that might call for a fine porcelain title is carried through into the coloration of the plates. plate.” The size of each menu affects the shape of the plate—an As forensic science develops, over a hundred innocent inmates excessively large meal is painted on a platter whereas the four have been freed from death row convictions. The reference to olives and berry flavored water requested by the Texas inmate heaven provides an element of hope for the souls of the individu- was painted on a small and narrow dish. Additionally, the irony als who have been wrongly convicted and subsequently executed. of the large meals is not lost—within the prison system the last

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 43 1 Louisiana 7 January 2010, Fried sac-a-lait fish, topped with crawfish etouffee, a peanut butter and apple jelly sandwich, and chocolate chip cookies.

2 Georgia, 26 June 2007, Four fried pork chops, collard greens with boiled okra and “boiling meat,” fried corn, fried fatback, fried green tomatoes, cornbread, lemonade, one pint of strawberry ice cream, and three glazed donuts.

3 Texas 22 January 2009, Twenty- four hot dog chicken wings, two cheeseburgers with everything, four slices of pizza with jalapeños, three slices of buttered toast, one sweet potato pie, rainbow sherbet ice cream, and twelve cans of Dr.Pepper/Big Red.

4 Indiana, 5 May 2007, Pizza and birthday cake shared with fifteen family and friends. A prison official is quoted on the plate. 1

meal is often referred to as ‘The Big Feed’ and these extensive configurations, each place setting with the empty chair and menus live up to the name. plate establishes the physical space in which the inmate would By illustrating the meal upon a plate, Green enables the viewer have consumed the meal depicted. The absence of the inmate is to visualize the inmate’s final meal; placing the viewer as the pris- omnipresent and both the self-referential qualities of the painted oner with the meal set before them to consume. The use of the food on each plate and the shared vantage point of the viewer plate makes each work self-referential and more accessible. The and prisoner are further reinforced. depictions of these meals not only humanize the inmates, they To continue the dialog produced by The Last Supper, Green enable the viewer to identify with the prisoners through their hopes that entire collection will be put on permanent public dis- vantage point and the familiarity of the foods. play, perhaps in Texas. To date, 450 plates have been completed The collection has been displayed in a number of configurations and Green intends to paint an additional 50 plates per year until in the past decade, from a mass group hanging upon a wall to a the death penalty is abolished. tabletop installation; the presentations communicate different as- Green conceptualized the series through an article in an Okla- pects of the series to the viewer. The crowded, chock-a-block hang homa newspaper that stated in full detail, the final request of an at San Francisco State University highlights the sheer number of executed inmate, “His right foot, clad in a blue slipper shook these executions in the recent years. The exhibition at the Art and nervously. . . . After officials began administering the drugs at Design Gallery at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, featured 12:09 a.m., Johnson blinked three times and let out a breath ordered rows of plates, mimicking the structured order of the through puffed cheeks. His foot stopped shaking. His eyes slowly penal system. Often Green includes an empty chair to “reference dimmed, became glassy and closed to a crescent. . . . He asked for the wooden electric chair.” a final meal of three chicken thighs, ten or fifteen shrimp, tater The chair is also found in the table setting installations of tots with ketchup, two slices of pecan pie, strawberry ice cream, Reed College Arts Week and Spencer Museum of Art. In these honey and biscuits, and a Coke.”

44 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 2

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Looking at the series as a whole, the development of Green’s According to Green, “when considering the humble requests, mastery of the medium is apparent, the paintings have become it is important to note that most states limit final meal expenses more detailed and complex through the years. Mineral paint is a to twenty dollars. Some states, like Texas, further limit choices to difficult pigment to handle; the thick and oily paint calls for a skilled foods found in the prison pantry. If you request steak in Texas, hand to effectively layer the pigment on the fired ceramic surface. you get hamburger.” When she began the series, Green planned to “make the The public response has been as varied as the menus and, plates institutional-looking and awkward, intentionally lacking although she has not received a direct response from death-row in richness” as an aesthetic conceptual point. As The Last Supper inmates regarding the series, Green has learned through attorneys progressed, her familiarity with the medium allowed her to become and prison staff that many inmates have seen the project. Ulti- more expressive. Comparing a menu of grilled salmon requested mately, she hopes to turn the collection into an illustrated book. In in 1999 by an Arizona inmate to a fried sac-a-lait fish requested the words of Samuel Pepys, it is “strange to see how a good dinner in 2010 by a Louisiana inmate, Green’s technical development is and feasting reconciles everybody.” evident. Her later plates are more expressive and include text— End notes: 1. Finlay, Victoria, Colour: Travels through the Paintbox, London, Hodder and Stoughton, 2002. either printed with a set of rubber stamps or in a script applied 324-325. 2. Ibid, 328. with a paintbrush. Julie Green would like to acknowledging the skill and support of Toni Gazing from one plate to another, a culinary portrait of the Acock, technical advisor for The Last Supper project. United States begins to emerge. The most beloved menus from each region are singled out to be the last earthly delight of a con- the author Megan Fizell is a Sydney, Australia–based art histo- demned inmate. From tamales and enchiladas in Texas to boiled rian and writer concerned with the representation of food in the crawfish in Louisiana, the regional menus give a sense of the ethnic visual arts. She is the voice of the food and art blog Feasting on Art background of each prisoner. (www.feastingonart.com).

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 45 mfa factor University of Montana, Missoula

Program Details • 3-year program • Applicants/year: 40 • Positions/year: 2 • Teaching assistantships/fellowships: 5 teaching assistant- ships with tuition waiver, plus stipend available (distributed among all areas in the art school); graduate assistantships with small stipends per class; discussion leader stipends; fel- lowships include Fells Oskins Scholarships, Thomas Wickes Scholarship, Leonard Stach Scholarship, Scott Bardsley Scholarship, and others. • Cost per semester: $3,103 (in-state); $10,665 (out-of -state)

Beth Lo, professor: Water, 20 in. (51 cm) in height, coil-built and wheel-thrown porcelain, celadon and , fired in reduction to cone 10, 2010.

Trey Hill, assistant professor: Hill High Rain, 68 in. (1.7 m) Julia Galloway, professor and school of art director: plate, 6 in. in height, handbuilt and press-molded stoneware, glaze and (15 cm) in diameter, porcelain, inlay, mid-range electric fired, underglaze, reduction fired to cone 5, electric fired to cone 3, luster, 2011. mixed media, 2011.

46 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 2

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Facilities Highlights 3 • slab roller and extruder • 22 electric and kick wheels • spray booth • Soldner mixer • 400 lb. capacity dough mixer • white and red clay pug mills • 12 electric kilns • electric test kiln • 2 Geil gas updraft kilns • 2 soda/salt kilns • raku kiln • outdoor car kiln • off campus anagama kiln 4 6

Dedicated Spaces • 6 graduate studio spaces, approxi-

mately 150 sq. ft. each 1 Dean Foster’s DHW Memory, 51 in. (1.3 m) 4 Suzanne Lussier’s Delicacy, 19 in. (48 cm) in • clay mixing room in height, slab-built stoneware, screen printing, length, handbuilt earthenware with colored terra • glaze area sprayed slip glaze, gas reduction fired to cone 6, sigillata washes, white slip, fired to cone 04 with acrylic, oil pastel and ink, 2010. low-fire glaze. • slip casting and plaster area • outdoor sculpture and ceramics yard 2 Nathan Tonning’s My Name and Artist’s 5 Randi O’Brien’s Deposition, 4 ft. (1.2 m) in height, Statement, variable dimensions, handbuilt ceramic, built solid and hollowed out earthenware, slip, and • 575 sq. ft. Off Center Gallery adja- spray paint, clear coat, indoor/outdoor carpet, 2011. glaze, electric fired to cone 04, 2011. cent to ceramic studio for student use • 200 sq. ft. Fishbowl exhibition space 3 Ron Geibel’s Big Wheel 2, 7 in. (18 cm) in height, 6 Sarahjess Hurt’s The Importance of Time, 8 in. thrown and assembled earthenware, electric fired (20 cm) in height, press-molded porcelain, electric to cone 01, 2011. fired to cone 6, wood, paper, copper, wax, 2010.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 47 CELADONS at SIX by John Britt Celadon glazes are some of the most popular glazes in ceramics. In par- ticular, transparent blue celadons have a very delicate, beautiful color that shows carving very nicely. But celadons aren’t just blue; they can range from blue to blue-green to gray-blue to gray-green to green to amber, and even to white. They often have distinctive crackle patterns that are sought after but can also be craze-free. Celadons originated in China thousands of years ago and were meant to mimic jade. The Lung-chuan (Longquan) satin green celadons were important Chinese exports for over 500 years. The term “Celadon” is a European name thought to have derived from a character in a French play who wore gray-green ribbons over his cloak. However, there are several competing theories of its origin. Technically, celadons are feldspathic transparent high-fi re glazes that are colored with iron and fi red in reduction. This differentiates them from transparent copper greens known as Oribe, but both glaze names denote a type of ware as well as a color of glaze. Celadons were thought to have been made from the local clay body and ash, but as the glaze traveled to Korea and Japan, potters began using porcelain stone (a naturally occurring decomposed feldspathic rock) in the glaze. Purists would say that a cone 6 celadon is impossible, since, by defi ni- tion, it is high fi red, but if we take a more practical approach and widen our defi nition of celadon to a transparent blue-green glaze colored with iron or other oxides, then we can include cone 6 celadons in reduction or oxidation. Since I have worked extensively with cone 10 blue celadons, and know the principles necessary to produce that glaze, I assumed that those same principles could be used to make a cone 6 celadon. The idea is to select a glaze with high potassium (better chances for blue), high silica, small amounts of iron, and low titanium (to prevent opacifying the glaze and to prevent the iron from going green to brown). Also, a small amount of tin oxide and barium carbonate improve the blue color. Apply it thickly (two to three coats; 1⁄8–3⁄16 inches or 3–5mm) on a clay body also low in titanium. This means that you should use Grolleg kaolin in both the clay body and the glaze recipe. Fire in an early reduction cycle, using heavy reduction (0.75–0.80 oxygen probe reading) beginning at cone 012–010 (1582–1657°F; 861–903°C), then hold moderate reduction (0.70–0.75

48 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org oxygen probe reading) to the end of the fi ring. Theoretically, this ADJUSTING A CONE 10 CELADON TO CONE 6 should be simple, but in order to melt a glaze at cone 6 (2232°F, Blue celadon is the most diffi cult color to obtain with iron, so if 1222°C), you need to add different fl uxes, all of which have dif- we start with one of those recipes, then getting a green celadon ferent color responses. Boron oxide is an active fl ux at cone 6, should be easy. Taking Pinnell Celadon, which is a cone 10 glaze, as are sodium, lithium, and zinc oxide, but each have their own and substituting Nepheline Syenite for the Custer feldspar should characteristics that have to be taken to consideration. For example, help bring the melting temperature closer to cone 6. (Nepheline zinc oxide is an excellent fl ux in oxidation, but if fi red in reduction Syenite is a feldspathoid that melts at cone 6, while most feldspar it will volatilize, leaving the glaze unmelted. Boron is an excellent starts melting at about cone 9.) If a straight substitution doesn’t fl ux in oxidation and reduction but can make the glaze cloudy. cause the glaze to suffi ciently melt at cone 6, which it does not in Because you have to add so much fl ux, sometimes up to 30% frit this case, start adding additional cone 6 fl uxes, like frits, Gerstley or Gerstley borate, it is sometimes necessary to start reduction a borate, lithium carbonate, or zinc oxide (for oxidation only, which bit earlier when fi ring to cone 6 or the glaze might seal over and we’ll cover later), running progressions from 1–10%. In this case, the atmosphere will not be able to act on the iron. 10% Gerstley borate worked well. Alternatively, fi nding the proper So, with these considerations in mind, there are several ways glaze melt can be aided by glaze software, in which you get the to make a cone 6 blue/green celadon: move a cone 10 reduction unity molecular formula of the glaze into acceptable limits for cone celadon down to cone 6 reduction; test existing cone 6 bases with 6. You will need to retotal the recipe to 100 if you add additional varying amounts of iron; or use stains to make blue/green celadons fl uxes. After you fi nd the surface you like, run iron progressions in an electric oxidation fi ring. from 1–6% to get a celadon color you like (see tiles below).

1% 2% 3% 4% 5% The change from green or blue toward brown or black can happen with a very small change in the amount of iron.

PINNELL CELADON PINNELL CELADON REVISED Cone 10 reduction Cone 6 reduction Whiting ...... 20.0 % Gerstley Borate (or substitute) . . . 9.09 % Custer Feldspar ...... 25.0 Whiting ...... 18.18 Grolleg Kaolin ...... 20.0 Nepheline Syenite ...... 22.73 Silica ...... 35.0 Grolleg Kaolin ...... 18.18 100.0 % Silica ...... 31.82 Add: Tin Oxide ...... 1.0 % 100.00 % Synthetic Red Iron Oxide . . . . 0.5 % Add: Tin Oxide ...... 1.00 % Barium Carbonate* (optional) . . 2.0 % Synthetic Red Iron Oxide . . . 0.50 % Barium Carbonate*(optional) . . 2.00 % Use the same fi ring cycle as for cone 10 gas reduction, but simply stop it at cone 6/7. Note: Synthetic red iron oxide is 96–99% Pinnell Celadon Revised with pure red iron, made by calcining black iron * You can substitute 1.5% strontium carbonate 0.5% synthetic red iron oxide oxide in oxidation. It is then milled to 325 for the barium carbonate if you prefer. on Grolleg porcelain. mesh, which makes it ideal for celadons, because it will enter the melt more quickly and thoroughly. For more, see “All About Iron,” page 14, March 2011 CM.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 49 USE AN EXISTING CONE 6 RECIPE AS A CELADON BASE Since you have to do a lot of experimenting and testing to move blue to blue green to green to amber to to iron saturate. a cone 10 glaze down to cone 6, I fi nd that you can make an iron Remember, always use Grolleg kaolin as the clay to keep the tita- celadon pretty easily by just taking one of the hundreds of work- nium as low as possible. The tone of the colors is dictated by the able cone 6 glazes already in use with a surface you like and then, oxides that predominate in the base and the amount of iron. So after taking out the colorants and opacifi ers, running an iron a high calcium base will give different colors than a high sodium progression. This will take you through a range of iron colors from base, regardless of fi ring temperature.

Grolleg porcelain white stoneware dark stoneware

JOHN’S SATIN BLUE CELADON Cone 6 reduction Whiting ...... 20.69 % Ferro Frit 3195 ...... 17.24 Nepheline Syenite ...... 6.90 Grolleg Kaolin ...... 25.86 Silica ...... 29.31 100.00 % John's Satin Blue Celadon with 0.5% synthetic red iron oxide. Add: Tin Oxide ...... 1.00 % Synthetic Red Iron Oxide . . . 0.50 % Grolleg porcelain white stoneware dark stoneware For Lung Chuan (on white stoneware): Synthetic Red Iron Oxide ...... 3.00 %

John's Satin Blue Celadon with 3% synthetic red iron oxide.

Grolleg porcelain white stoneware dark stoneware Grolleg porcelain white stoneware

Tony Hansen 20x5 with 0.75% synthetic red iron oxide. V. C. 71 with 0.5% synthetic red iron oxide.

TONY HANSEN 20 X 5 V. C. 71 Cone 6 reduction Cone 6/7 reduction Whiting ...... 20.00 % Talc ...... 9.0 Ferro Frit 3134 ...... 20.00 Whiting ...... 16.0 Custer Feldspar ...... 20.00 Ferro Frit 3124 ...... 9.0 Grolleg Kaolin ...... 20.00 Custer Feldspar ...... 40.0 Silica ...... 20.00 Grolleg Kaolin ...... 10.0 100.00 % Silica ...... 16.0 Add: Tin Oxide ...... 1.00 % 100.0 % Synthetic Red Iron Oxide . . . 0.75 % Add: Red Iron Oxide ...... 0.5 % Barium Carbonate (optional) . . 0.75 %

caption caption caption caption

50 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Grolleg porcelain white stoneware dark stoneware

CHUN CLEAR Cone 6 oxidation Whiting ...... 14.00 % Zinc Oxide ...... 12.00 F-4 Feldspar (sub Minspar 200) . . . 38.00 Kentucky ...... 6.00 Silica ...... 30.00 Chun Clear with 2% Turquoise Mason Stain 6393. 100.00 % Add: Barium Carbonate (optional) . . 0.75 % Grolleg porcelain white stoneware dark stoneware Stains ...... 2–3.00 % Or: Cobalt Carbonate ...... 0.10 %

Chun Clear with 2% Cadet Blue Mason Stain 6302

USE STAINS TO IMITATE A CELADON a blue/green celadon, there are many cone 6 domestic porcelains Using stains in a cone 6 base allows you to fi re in oxidation (par- that will work, as well as light and dark stonewares. It is important ticularly useful for all of the folks out there fi ring electric kilns) to mention that different clay bodies have different CTE (coef- even though some stains work in reduction as well. As I said earlier, fi cients of thermal expansion) and that will affect the crazing or zinc oxide in oxidation makes a wonderful cone 6 fl ux and can the crackle pattern. Also, expansion and contraction is affected by produce some nice colors with both oxides and stains. Many stain fi ring temperature, and mid-range fi ring (cone 5–7) spans a large manufacturers recommend using 8% stain, but that makes the glaze temperature range (2167– 2262°F; 1186–1239°C) so maintaining fl at and uninteresting to me, so I use very small amounts (1–3%) consistent fi rings is essential. to keep the color delicate and transparent. Firing at cone 6 is a great way to both save energy and still get outstanding celadons. You can knock about three hours off of a CLAY BODY CONSIDERATIONS typical cone 10 fi ring time, and save about a third of the fuel by Finally, clay body must be considered when making cone 6 ce- fi ring celadons to cone 6. No one will know unless you tell them! ladons. To get delicate iron blue celadons you will need to use a Grolleg clay body. Some suppliers only produce cone 10 Grolleg the author John Britt is a frequent contributor to CM, and is the author clay bodies, which only start to mature (less than 1% absorption) of The Complete Guide to High Fire Glazes: Glazing and Firing at at cone 7, so you may need to fi re them to cone 7. If you want Cone 10. To see John’s work and writing, go to www.johnbrittpottery.com.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 51 UndergradUate Showcase Yeon2 joo 011 Lee_Oakland, California CaLifOrnia COLLege Of the arts Instructors: Arthur Gonzalez, Nathan Lynch

In my work, I try to hold the attention of viewers and com- municate my themes through composition, specifically pattern and negative space. In the piece Baggage of Life, the theme of the acquired burden is Above: Baggage of Life, each piece 14 in. (36 cm) in something all people can relate to. By using multiple figures, a universal height, slip cast, electric fired to cone 6. theme is established. Marching figures spiral out from a common center Below: Do You Want to Marry?, 13 in. (33 cm) in and appear to be walking outward in different directions, creating a diameter, handbuilt, electric fired to cone 05. metaphor for how everyone has difficulties, starting from one beginning, but looking for their own personal answers. We, as singular people, al- though unique, aren’t that much different from each other. In times of hardship, people come together to console each other, due to the fact that they themselves are carrying a similar sack of worries. In Would You Like to Marry? I wanted to show an overburdened woman’s life. The vacuuming woman with a baby on her back repre- sents this theme. She stands on a wide carpeted area, occupying just a fraction of one corner of the entire space. The carpet establishes a world needing to be cleaned and the loneliness of her situation. The carpet creates an atmosphere of negative space, giving the message more power.

52 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 2 011

Justin Crowe_hudson, Ohio new YOrk state COLLege Of CeramiCs at aLfred UniversitY Instructors: Linda Sikora, Wayne Higby

To achieve the surface of my plates, I layer thin sheets of translu- cent porcelain to create varied shades of gray. My process begins with a negative plaster mold of a plate on a potter’s wheel. I paint a black slip pattern directly onto the plaster; this will become the primary black geometry seen on the surface of the plate. Next, I spread out paper clay slip on a plaster slab, dry it, and compress it into a thin sheet. I press the sheet into the plate negative over the primary pattern, and proceed to paint slip on that surface. This will be seen as the second layer of imagery; the darkest gray. The process is repeated up to three times for varied levels of depth and value. Once I have the paper clay imagery finished, I throw porcelain into the mold, forming the underside of the plate. During this step, the paper clay, and the image attached,

Above: Mugs, 4 in. (10 cm) in height, porcelain, interiors inlaid are stretched and ripped, distorting the pattern. When the with slip and clear glazed, exteriors water etched and coated with plate is leather hard, I flip the mold over and drop the plate out. Grolleg terra sigillata, fired to cone 10 in an electric kiln. Finally, I add details such as slip inlay, altered edges, and clear Top right: Disk, 21 in. (53 cm) in diameter, porcelain with black glaze. The plates are once fired to cone 8, at which point the slip under a layer of porcelain paper clay, with clear glaze, fired to porcelain becomes translucent exposing the patterns previously cone 8 in an electric kiln, 2011. hidden underneath the surface.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 53 margeaux Claude_minneapolis, minnesota kansas CitY art institUte Instructors: Cary Esser, George Timock, Paul Donnelly

After focusing on thrown pottery for my first two years at the Kansas City Art Institute, this was my first full body of work focused on functional slip cast forms. The forms were prototyped using a plaster wheel, or vertical plaster lathe. Wet plaster is cast to the head of the plaster wheel and then lathed during different periods of time as the plaster is setting. In some cases both prototypes and molds were made using this process. When making something like a simple cup form, I am able to lathe the mold over the cup so the sides of the mold are uniform in width from all respective dimensions of the original form. More complex forms are altered or made from multiple piece prototype components that are then joined before making more complex molds off the wheel. Working with the plaster wheel resulted from studying this forming process for two summers at the International Ceramics Studio in Hungary with George Timock. While in Kansas City, I was also very fortunate to intern for Andy Brayman, who has influenced the way I approach play, process, and experiment in my own work. This body of work has been inspired by mid-20th-century architecture, dinnerware, and picnic sets. Bright celadon and cool and milky opaque glazes were chosen to refer- ence the surfaces of Tupperware and Mel-Mac dinnerware. Above: Small tumblers stacked on cake plate, tumblers 5½ in. (14 cm) in height, slip-cast white stoneware, fired to cone 10 in reduction, 2011.

Right: Summer Series, pitchers, tumblers, and cake plates, to 14 in. (36 cm) in height, slip-cast white stoneware, fired to cone 10 in reduction, 2011.

54 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org

UndergradUate Showcase2 011 alix Brodeur_Logan, Utah Utah state UniversitY Instructors: John Neely, Dan Murphy, Trevor Dunn

In this past year as an undergraduate, my last, I’ve begun wood firing. The forms I’ve been working with have evolved from my experience with functional pottery, though they are not neces- sarily for the cupboard. I am intrigued with the stationary vessel, the one that is used every day but rarely moved. Perhaps it lives on the mantle, on display for its sleek lines or strong presence. Or maybe it’s the catch-all by the front door, forever available for keys or pocket emptying. These fixed objects appeal to me in their larger scale

Above: Small bowl, 6 in. (15 cm) in length, high iron clay, and lend themselves to an investigation into form that pottery wood fired, reduction cooled, 2011. doesn’t always allow. Coil building with the aid of simple molds offers for an Below: Double, 19 in. (48 cm) in length, high iron clay, wood fired, reduction cooled, 2011. immediacy in creating the initial shape of the pot. I feel I have the most control with these techniques, establishing a preliminary shape with coils then refining to find symmetry and confident lines. While working, I’m always drawing from the last piece I cre- ated. One vessel begs a question that I attempt to answer with the next. They are simple questions, usually addressing a rim or profile. What if I built up instead of down? What if I made this side higher than that one? What if I pinched those parts toward each other? What if that plane bulged out instead of lying flat? I enjoy these questions for their exhaustive approach to a series of shapes. It allows me to feel as if I’ve covered all my bases—as if I could even come close.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 55

UndergradUate Showcase2 011 dane Youngren_stanwood, washington washingtOn state UniversitY Instructor: Ann Christenson

My work deals with the everyday structures of the built environment serving transportation, industrial, and other functional purposes. The utilitarian nature of such constructions lends itself to a matter-of-fact presentation of these places, which are typically taken at face value or even overlooked. . . . There is a certain beauty we seem to find with older structures as they reference the picturesque, idealized landscape as well as the ruin. The initial captivation with beauty is interrupted by a forlorn and melancholic aura of the work where there is evidence of destruction and abandonment. The wood crates function as shipping containers as well as display devices, creating an extension of the sculpture with linkages to the utilitarian. Creating large, open ceramic forms is a satisfying and challenging process that helps me to explore real and imagina- tive space. My work references specific places while maintaining distance from Above: High Rise, 3 ft. 8 in. (1.1 m) in height [crate 4 ft. 7 in. (1.4 m) in height], stoneware, the particular. . . . The imagery I use fired to cone 6 in reduction. has connections to westward expansion and industrialization, but my work Right: Warehouse, 43 in. (1.09 m) in length, tends toward the antithesis of this stoneware, fired to cone 3 process of development—the obso- in a neutral atmosphere. lescence, deterioration, and other by-products from the declination of industrial progress.

56 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 2 011 Have you seen the new

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 57 rEviEwS

1 2 3

4 5 6 7

1 Forrest Gard’s GO, GO, GO, 35 in. (89 cm) in length, slip-cast, press-molded, and handbuilt porcelain, glaze, fired to cone 6, steel.2 Paige Wright’s Self Portrait, 5 ft. (1.5 m) in height, stoneware, oil, and wig. 3 Kyle Triplett’s, Construction #18, 9 in. (23 cm) in height, Grolleg porcelain, glazes, and washes, fired to cone 1 and cone 04. 4–5 Heidi Casto’s Teething, 4 ft. (1.2 m) in length, handbuilt white earthenware and glaze, fired to cone 04, wooden plaques.6 Stephanie Ratliff’s Invaders of EKY 1/25, 13 in. (33 cm) in height, clay and tool dip. 7 Mark Nathan Stafford’s Steep, 4 ft. 6 in. (1.4 cm) in height, redware paper clay, flameware, mason stains, and mixed media.

The 2011 National Student Juried Exhibition by Tony Merino Skilled and smart people have been fabricating objects from clay for bat is central to the work. Selecting it over a baseball or softball bat several millennia. In almost every manifestation of making objects creates the context of toy. This context sharpens the violence and from clay, the objects reference something other than their own danger of its use. history. From Greek vases and jars depicting battles, games, and Ratliff’s Invaders of EKY 1/25 is a somber political piece. In mythologies, through Moche ceramics that explicate martial and the lower corner of a flat plane, shaped like a county map, Ratliff erotic subjects, to Japanese tea utensils embodying a Zen spiritual- carves out a crater. The black and gray divot contrasts sharply ity, and Voulkos and Ferguson’s embrace of the heroic American- with the bright yellow surface of the piece. Ratliff renders the ism of Abstract Expressionism, the tradition of clay is of being coal mine as a festering carbuncle on the earth. The color of the relics of the larger world. Striving to link ceramic objects with work references a highly specific, non-ceramic historic source. The the larger culture unified the eclectic works included in the “2011 yellow is taken from the idiosyncratic color of Caterpillar (CAT) NCECA National Student Juried Exhibition” (NSJE), which was mining equipment. on view at the University of South Florida’s Centre Gallery and Two other artists chose to use a traditional ceramic form in William & Nancy Oliver Gallery (http://centregallery.usf.edu, their work; the human figure. Paige Wright deals with the body as and http://art.usf.edu/content/templates/?a=1309&z=12) in evidence in Self-Portrait, a nude woman posed in a dumbfounded Tampa, Florida. gesture. In this work, the human body becomes a rhetorical device. Two works stood out among these pieces; Forrest Gard’s America’s Wright illustrates that a person’s body is residue of their identity. Its Favorite Pastime and Stephanie Ratliff’s Invaders of EKY 1/25. With shape, its movements, all come from the life of the person. Heidi America’s Favorite Pastime, Gard invests a hackneyed Dadaist/Pop Castro uses the figure to create a quirkily absurd piece calledTeeth- convention—reproducing objects with materials that undermine ing. Castro mounts the gaping mouths of several different animals the object’s functionality, with a quirky sense of humor. Artists like in a grid of nine. The center plaque shows a human infant’s mouth. Claes Oldenburg and Méret Oppenheim used this same device. Two The most ubiquitous function of many clay objects is to articu- slip-cast Wiffle® ball bats and a single slip-cast softball comprise this late a narrative. The NSJE included two artists who tap into this piece. Gard includes three photos documenting the objects shatter- tradition to create irony. Using several baskets of ceramic spheres ing as they are used. The inclusion of the photos adds a sense of and two conveyer belts, Amie Rogers’ All Your Eggs, 2 Baskets il- danger and irresponsibility to the work. This was one of the crucial lustrates the banal cliché, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” subtexts to the Dadaist movement. Gard’s selection of a Wiffle® ball One of the belts tilts to the floor, dumping the contents of a basket.

58 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 8 9

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8 Bonilyn Parker’s two yellow cups, 4½ in. (11 cm) in height, slip-cast porcelain and glaze, reduction-fired.9–10 Forrest Gard’s America’s Favorite Pastime, 30 in. (76 cm) in length, slip-cast and handbuilt porcelain, underglaze, and glaze, oxidation fired to cone 6.11 Aime Rogers’ All Your Eggs, Two Baskets, 5 ft. 9 in. (1.7 m) in height, stoneware fired to cone 6 oxidation, bronze baskets, wire, and flanges.12 Brett Freund’s Pleasure and Death, 28 in. (71 cm) in height, porcelain, fired to cone 6.

Near the gallery floor, a spray of orbs juts out from the gallery a metaphor for our current global economy and “homogenized wall. Kyle Triplett eschews a subject altogether in Construction world culture.” The work resonates with Magrittian Surrealism. #18; two offset rounded yellow triangles, linked with white bars. Just inverting the person from consumer to producer of tea has a Triplett generates visual interest by offsetting the two objects. The strong resonance. The other rhetorical elements are not lost; they artist also frustrates the viewer. There is some narrative; it is just infuse Stafford’s surreal image with validity. too heavily coded to be decipherable. Whether through banality The exhibition’s most provocative piece was Parker’s. The work or lack of disclosure, Rogers and Triplett contort the role of nar- consists of two yellow cups decorated with a simple black dot and rative in their work. narrow, white, egg-like design. The cups expand off a base and The exhibition included several pieces that were essentially taper to the rim. On the sides, the handles emerge as part of the formal. Brett Freund’s Pleasure and Death epitomized these works. form and intersect slightly below the rim. The pieces look like The artist tangles together a conglomeration of unpleasant surfaces the kind of small, heavy cups used by pancake houses. In Parker’s including objects that look like tan chunks of pumice, burnt bone, statement, the artist alludes to slip casting the forms. Would it with their surfaces cracking and peeling, and flattened diamond matter if the pieces where slip cast from cups Parker bought or shapes covered with pooling blue mucus. This orgy of visceral found and not thrown, if so, why? However they are made, their surfaces somehow congeal into something not necessarily beautiful similarity to manufactured works is unsettling. Parker forces the but compelling. Gard’s second contribution, GO, GO, GO, a series viewer to consider just how elastic the line is between appropria- of 50 toy cars, reflects the same interest in variation and repetition tion and plagiarism. This context aside, the pieces are beautiful of form as Freund, albeit in a much more refined manner. and highly functional. Mark Nathan Stafford and Bonilyn Parker address issues specific Cutting, pinching, throwing, rolling, or pouring clay axiomati- to ceramics in their pieces. They expand or subvert these contexts cally links the maker with a great history of object making. Para- through their work. Stafford’s contribution, Steeped, is comprised doxically, creating work that refers exclusively to this history would of a sculpture of a man sitting at a table with a promotional be to reject the material’s larger history. Whatever ceramics import calendar showing the works of Bruegel the Elder in his hand, a to the culture at large, it is the result of clay’s connection to, not Blackberry® showing a Bruegel on a Wikipedia page, a cup of tea, separation from, that culture. and an imported celadon vase. Steam comes out of the figure’s eyes. In his statement, Stafford states he is using the drinking of tea as the author Tony Merino has lectured and published internationally.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 59 rEviEwS

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1 Del Harrow’s, Wedgewood Black Hive/Hole, slip-cast black porcelain, 2011. Links, earthenware, glaze, and platinum luster. Copper Fade, earthenware and glaze. All 2011. 2 Berthe Morisot, Tureen and Apple (Soupiere et Pomme), oil on canvas, 1877. Purchased in honor of Mr. and Mrs. Frederic C. Hamilton. 3 Bowl with floral medallions, stoneware, underglaze blue, , Safavid period, 1600s. Gift of Bj Averitt. 4 Anders Ruhwald’s, like the new past, glazed earthenware and mixed media, 2011. Courtesy of Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco. 5 Francisco Clapera’s De Cambujo y Mulata, Albarazado, oil on canvas, Mexico, ca. 1775. Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer. 6 Neil Forrest’s, Flake, stoneware, automotive , lead glaze, urethane fittings, and stainless steel cable. 2011. All museum installation photos this page and next by Jeff Wells unless noted otherwise.

Marvelous Mud: Clay Around the world by Sanam Emami The Denver Art Museum (www.denverartmuseum.org) in Denver, Blue and white porcelain continued its journey to the new world Colorado, is showcasing clay as the unifying theme for a museum with the arrival of the Spanish colonizers. Mud to Masterpiece: wide event called “Marvelous Mud: Clay Around The World.” Fo- Mexican Colonial Ceramics explores the hybridization of Spanish and cusing on one material, Marvelous Mud presents clay as a versatile Mexican culture on many levels, mostly through the objects made for medium used over many centuries to preserve and contain food as use in the kitchen. The large chocolate storage jars with locking metal well as the ideas and images from cultures around the world. The lids are some of the best pieces of the show, but also of interest are the exhibitions feature pieces from the museum’s superb Pre-Columbian comparative displays that depict the cross over and dialog between the and Asian collections alongside photographs, paintings, industrial European and Asian imports with the objects produced in Mexico. ware, and contemporary art. Another unifying element through Another striking element of the show were the Castas paintings, devel- the exhibitions is skill. All of the work was made with a degree of oped in the new world to classify racial mixtures, they also document technical expertise, and the product is a group of exhibitions that daily life by depicting the walls of colonial kitchens, including those display the inherent qualities of ceramics as material, but formed of the lower and middle class, which were usually filled with both with a level of virtuosity and control. Indian produced earthenware and Mexican mayólica. Marvelous Mud includes two temporary exhibitions, “Marajó: An- Though small, the collection of porcelain lab ware produced by cient Ceramics at the Mouth of the Amazon” and “Overthrown: Clay the Coors Porcelain Company, called Potters of Precision: The Coors Without Limits.” There are five exhibitions curated from the museum’s Porcelain Company, is not to be missed. The pieces, almost all a pris- permanent collection: “Dirty Pictures,” “Potters of Precision: The tine ethereal white with small blue marks, are called crucibles, beakers Coors Porcelain Company,” “Blue and White: A Ceramic Journey,” and evaporating dishes, but remind the viewer of tea strainers, batter “Mud to Masterpiece: Mexican Colonial Ceramics,” and “Focus: Earth bowls, and pouring vessels that were crafted with beautiful precision. and Fire.” Due to the size and breadth of the shows there’s only enough Dirty Pictures—the best title of all the shows—is a wonderful space to discuss some highlights from each exhibition. but slightly overcrowded group of photographs with earth or mud as Blue and White: A Ceramic Journey tells the story of the ori- the subject matter, often focusing on the results of human behavior gins of blue and white porcelain in China and its influence across on the earth. numerous cultures. The lasting impression of the Chinese style, a Focus: Earth and Fire draws from the museum’s modern col- familiar story, is presented here in a refreshing manner. The painting lection, and showcases ceramic artists including Robert Arneson, on display by the French Impressionist Berthe Morisot beautifully Marilyn Levine, and Betty Woodman alongside non-ceramic artists depicts the central place that played in both like Roxy Paine and Isamu Noguchi. Notable pieces that also activate the imagination and daily lives of 18th-century Europeans. Examples the space of the gallery are a group of pinched sculptures with a rich of English are displayed alongside other historical pots array of glazed surfaces by Scott Chamberlin displayed on either side from Iran and Japan, along with contemporary work. of the entrance to the gallery, and in the far back corner, a plate by

60 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 7 8 9

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7 Kim Dickey’s, Mille-Fleur, aluminum, glazed terra cotta, silicon, and rubber grommets, 2011. Courtesy Kim Dickey and represented by Rule Gallery, Denver. 8 Cheryl Ann Thomas’, RELIC HEAP (white), colored porcelain, 2011. Courtesy of Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, California. 9 Clare Twomey’s, Collecting the edges, red clay dust, site-specific project for the Denver Art Museum, 2011. Supported by Jana and Fred Bartlit. 10 Funerary Urn, Marajó Culture, Marajó Island, Brazil, earthenware with colored slip, CE 400–1300. Collection of Frederick and Jan Mayer. 11 Walter McConnell’s, Itinerant Edens: Hermetic Garden, 4800 pounds of moist clay in plastic enclosures, plywood, polystyrene, figurines, and light, 2011. Assisted by University of Denver and the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design students. 12 Coors Porcelain Co., beaker, 8½ in. (22cm) in length, glazed porcelain and wood, 20th C. Gift of John K. Coors and CoorsTek, Inc., Golden, Colorado.

Peter Voulkus and a pot by Richard DeVore sitting side by side on covered on both sides with large press molded pieces whose shapes a small shelf on a large expansive white wall that recedes and slowly and colors are stretched and altered from floor to ceiling. dissolves like the horizon line above the ocean. Anders Ruhwald has created a disorienting room of thousands of Overthrown: Clay Without Limits features the work of 25 commercial tiles glazed bright orange and blue. Entering the space, contemporary artists. Many have created large environments or one feels the physical irrational effect of color, the line between the integrated the building’s architecture directly in their work. Two floor and the ceiling melts away and the complementary colors almost installations—Clare Twomey’s soft red mounds of powdered clay pulsate. Gray abstract forms are displayed in the space—perhaps a and John Roloff’s large black and white photographs of jagged rock counterpoint of weight and logic—intriguing from a distance but formations, inspired by the geology of the Colorado foothills—ap- when close to, become a distraction. Jeanne Quinn’s You Are the Palace, pear both scattered throughout the museum and in the gallery space. You Are the Forest fills a large corner space in the back of the gallery Inside the gallery, other artists tackle ideas of nature and land- with floating forms that look both like antlers and chandeliers. scape. Walter McConnell’s encased worlds of wet clay touch on At the front of the gallery entrance is a triangular case displaying our historical need to control nature and recreate it in our own six of the artists from Overthrown. The works, especially that of image. Two small figures, perhaps Adam and Eve, stand in isolated Benjamin DeMott, Cheryl Ann Thomas, and John Gill, feel smaller plastic vitrines—their poses inspired by Jan Van Eyck’s Arnolfini being compressed in the glass case when so many pieces in the sur- Wedding —and stare out at the viewer and a third structure full of a rounding gallery space are granted epic space and status. cornucopia of abstract flora and fauna. Neil Forrest’s large floating Overthrown is a momentous event for contemporary ceramic art. It pieces are like land masses with beautiful thick edges that look like may be the largest and most important major museum commission of torn corrugated cardboard. The front is an artificially brilliant red, so many large scale and site-specific pieces created for one exhibition. while the back of the pieces feel like architectural cladding. If only Marajó: Ancient Ceramics at the Mouth of the Amazon, the the hanging wires would disappear, the feeling of weightlessness first exhibition in the United States devoted to the ceramics of the could overtake the work. pre-Columbian Amazon includes fascinating and mysterious pieces. Geometry, pattern, and architecture inform the work of many Almost nothing is known of the culture that produced these densely other artists in the show. In particular, Kim Dickey and Del Har- ornamental pieces decorated with incised patterns, molded relief and row provide compelling counterpoints on these ideas. Kim Dickey’s a polychrome finish. The works in this show are as complex and fascinating, freestanding aluminum wall covered with thousands of contemplative as any contemporary work in the museum. petal like shapes appears blurry or almost like a color field slightly bending in the wind from a distance, then up close the mosaic of the author Sanam Emami is a studio potter and educator living in Fort flowers align and create an image or tapestry of budding plants and Collins, Colorado, along with her husband, Del Harrow. Emami teaches flowers. Harrow’s large tile wall juts out of the museum wall and is ceramics at Colorado State University.

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76 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org call for entries deadlines for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals

international Arts Societies), Komenskega 8, Lju- Fee: $30 for five entries. Jurors: Linda ror: Zachary Orcutt. Contact Rosewood bljana, 1000 Slovenia; [email protected]; Christianson and John Wilson. Contact Gallery, 2655 Olson Dr., Kettering, OH exhibitions www.unicum.si; 386 1 433 03 80. Mary Cloonan, Baltimore Clayworks, 45420; [email protected]; September 1 entry deadline November 31 entry deadline 5707 Smith Ave., Baltimore, MD 21209; www.ci.kettering.oh.us; 937-296-0294. [email protected]; Washington, Seattle “Potters Council Tennessee, Franklin “YOUnite World September 19 entry deadline www.baltimoreclayworks.org; 410-578- 2012 Juried Exhibition: The Chromatic Tour 2012” (February 1–December 31, New York, New York “13th Tokyo- 1919 ext.18. Edge” (March 28–30) open to Potters 2012) Juried from digital. Fee: $10. New York Friendship Ceramic Com- Council members. Juried from digital. Contact Kristin Abraham, The Nomadic October 15 entry deadline petition” (October 18–22) open to Fee: $35 for three entries. Jurors: Jen- Project, 402 Boyd Mill Ave., Franklin, TN California, Mendocino “‘To Go’ ceramic artists from New York City nifer Harnetty and Robbie Lobell. 37064; [email protected]; Ceramics Exhibition” (December 1–31) and Tokyo. Juried from printed photos. Contact Carolyn Dorr, Potters Council, www.nomadic-project.com/younite.html open to vessels and sculpture. Fee: Fee: $30 for one entry. Jurors: Itsuko 600 N. Cleveland Ave. Ste. 210, Wester- 239-218-3470. $40 for three entries; or $15 each. Atsumi, Takeo Atsumi, Shinichi Doi, ville, OH 43082; [email protected]; Juror: Christa Assad. Contact Mike David McFadden, Miyeko Murase, www.potterscouncil.org; 866-721-3322. united states McDonald, Mendocino Art Center, Toshio Ohi, and Cora Rosevear. Con- September 1 entry deadline exhibitions PO Box 765, Mendocino, CA 95460; tact Mako Nishimori, Ceramic Artists [email protected]; 707- Friendship Association, Inc., 200 E Washington, Seattle “UN-WEDGED” September 2 entry deadline 937-5818; www.mendocinoartcenter.org. 61st St., Ste. 35C, New York, NY 10065; (November 5–26) open to functional Maryland, Baltimore “Ceramic Sutra” October 21 entry deadline [email protected]; and sculptural work created in the last (January 14–February 26, 2012) open to Florida, Panama City “Fourth An- www.cafaceramiccompetition.com; two years by Canadian, Mexican, and functional and sculpture work with a book nual Cup Show: Form and Function” 212-268-1711. US artists. Juried from digital. Fee: $30 theme. Juried from digital. Fee: $30 for (December 2–21) open to cups. Juried November 11 entry deadline per entry, up to two entries. Juror: Chris five entries. Juror: Novie Trump. Contact from digital. Fee: $15 for three entries. Staley. Contact Nana Kuo, Pottery North- Mary Cloonan, Baltimore Clayworks, Peoria, Illinois “3rd Biennial Central Juror: Linda Arbuckle. Contact Pavel west, 226 First Ave. N, Seattle, WA 98109; 5707 Smith Ave., Baltimore, MD 21209; Time Ceramics” (February 27–March Amromin, Gulf Coast State College, [email protected]; 206-285- [email protected]; 23) open to ceramic artists residing in 5230 West Hwy 98, Panama City, FL 4421; www.potterynorthwest.org. www.baltimoreclayworks.org; 410-578- the Central Time Zone. Fee: $30 for five 32401; [email protected]; 850- September 13 entry deadline 1919 ext.18. entries. Juror: Delores Fortuna. Contact 872-3886; www.gulfcoast.edu/arts/art/ Erin Zellefrow, Bradley University, 1501 Massachusetts, Boston “Craftboston September 3 entry deadline gallery/default.htm. W. Bradley Ave., Peoria, IL 61625; Spring and Holiday 2012” (March 23–25, Minnesota, Bemidji “9th Annual October 28 entry deadline [email protected]; 309-677- 2012) open to fine craft media. Juried It’s Only Clay Juried Competition and Louisiana, Baton Rouge “8 Fluid 2989; www.art.bradley.edu/bug. from digital. Fee: $40. Jurors: Beth Ann Exhibit” (November 4–December 17) Ounces 2012: A National Juried November 18 entry deadline Gerstein, Jan Katz, and Amy Nguyen. open to functional ceramic work. Juried Ceramics Cup Exhibition” (January Contact Fabio J. Fernandez, The Society from digital. Fee: $30 for three entries. Florida, Gainsville “2012 Florida 25–February 25, 2012) open to cups. of Arts and Crafts, 175 Newbury St., Bos- Juror: Guillermo Cuellar. Contact Lori Artists Juried Exhibition” (January 13– Juried from digital. Fee: $20 for three ton, MA 02116; [email protected]; Forshee-Donnay, Bemidji Community February 8, 2012) open to work under entries. Juror: Kristen Keiffer. Contact www.craftboston.org, 617-266-1819. Art Center, 426 Bemijdi Ave. N., Bemidji, 80 lb. and under 60 in. in any direction Malia Krolak, Louisiana State University September 15 entry deadline MN 56601; [email protected]; 218- created within the last year by FL artists. School of Art, 100 Lafayette St., Baton Juried from digital. Fee: $40 for up to Montana, Helena “Beyond the Brick- 444-7570; www.bcac.wordpress.com. Rouge, LA 70801; [email protected]; three entries. Juror: Jack King. Contact yard: Fourth Annual Juried Exhibition” September 9 entry deadline www.glassellgallery.org; 225-389-7180. Roselie Tucker, Gainesville Fine Arts As- (January 2012) open to work not exceed- Colorado, Estes Park “Lines into November 1 entry deadline sociation, PO Box 357007, Gainesville, ing 36 in. in any direction. Juried from Shapes Art Competition” (October 28– Michigan, Ann Arbor “Cups of Fire” FL 32635; [email protected]; 352-335- digital. Fee: $35 for three entries. Juror: November 13) open to all craft media. (January 29–March 3, 2012) open to 5643; www.gainesvillefinearts.com. Richard Shaw. Contact Rachel Hicks, Juried from digital. Fee: $15 per entry, functional and sculptural cups. Juried Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic up to four entries. Jurors: Denny Haskew December 10 entry deadline from digital. Fee: $25 for up to 3 entries. Arts, 2915 Country Club Ave., Helena, and Connie Stewart. Contact Audie Illinois, Warrenville “Clay³” (March Juror: Susan Beiner. Contact Yiu Keung MT 59602; [email protected]; Yenter, Art Center of Estes Park, 517 2–April 1, 2012) open to functional and Lee, Clay Gallery, 335 S. Main St., Ann www.archiebray.org; 406-443-3502. Big Thompson Ave., Estes Park, CO sculptural work that fits within one cubic Arbor, MI 48104; [email protected]; September 15 entry deadline 85017; [email protected]; 970- foot by AK, IA, IL, KY, MI, MN, MO, OH, www.callforentry.org; 734-604-7596. TN, and WI artists. Juried from digital. Pennsylvania, Wayne “Craft Forms 372-9217; www.artcenterofestes.com. Fee: $30 for up to three entries. Juror: 2011” (December 2–January 21, 2012) September 9 entry deadline November 1 entry deadline Steven Hill. Contact Marie Gnesda, Clay- open to craft media. Juried from digital. Texas, Laredo “Back to the Future” Texas, Denton “Materials: Hard Space, 28W210 Warrenville Rd., Warren- Fee: $40 for three entries. Juror: Elizabeth (March 5–April 6, 2012) open to all media. and Soft” (February 3–March 30, 2012) ville, IL 60504; [email protected]; Argo. Contact Karen Louise Fay, Wayne Juried from digital. Fee: $25 for three open to all craft media weighing less www.clayspace.net; 630-393-2529. Art Center, 413 Maplewood Ave., Wayne, than 75 lb. Juried from digital. Fee: $30 entries. Juror: Bruce Helander. Contact PA 19087; [email protected]; for up to three entries. Juror: Monica David Bogus, Texas A&M International January 6, 2012 entry deadline www.wayneart.org; 610-688-3553. Moses. Contact Greater Denton Arts University, 5201 University Blvd., Laredo, Massachusetts, Lexington “The TX 78041; [email protected]; 956- September 30 entry deadline Council, 400 E. Hickory St., Denton, TX State of Clay: 7th Biennial” (April 326-3079; www.tamiu.edu/coas/fpa. 22–May 20, 2012) open to current and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania “2012 76201; [email protected]; former residents of MA. Juried from NICHE Awards Competition” (May www.dentonarts.com; 940-382-2787. January 6, 2012 entry deadline digital. Fee: $35 for three entries. Juror: 15–September 30) open to Canadian September 29 entry deadline Kansas, Topeka “Crafts National” (May Doug Casebeer. Contact Ceramics and US artists. Juried from digital. Fee: Washington, Seattle “NCECA Na- 5–August 19, 2012) open to craft media. Guild, Lexington Arts and Crafts So- $40; students $18; for up to three tional Juried Student Exhibition” (March Juried from digital. Fee: $35 for three en- ciety, 130 Waltham St., Lexington, MA entries. Contact Erin Hartz, NICHE 6–31, 2012) open to students. Juried tries. Juror: Gail M. Brown. Contact Cindi 02421; [email protected]; Magazine, 3000 Chestnut Ave., Balti- from digital. Fee: $25; members $10. Morrison, Mulvane Art Museum, 1700 www.lacsma.org; 781-862-9696. more, MD 21211; [email protected]; Jurors: Mark Burns and Kathy King. SW College Ave., Topeka, KS 66621; www.NICHEAwards.com; 410-889- Contact Linda Ganstrom, Exhibitions [email protected]; 785-670- 2933, ext. 206. Director, NCECA, 77 Erie Village 1124; www.washburn.edu/mulvane. fairs and festivals October 31 entry deadline Square, Ste. 280, Erie, CO 80516-6996; regional exhibitions January 15, 2012 entry deadline Slovenia, Ljubljana “2nd Interna- [email protected]; www.nceca.net; Kansas, Topeka “Mountain/Plains tional Ceramic Triennial UNICUM 2012” 866-266-2322. September 15 entry deadline Art Fair” (June 2–3, 2012). Juried (May 15–September 30, 2012) open October 7 entry deadline Ohio, Kettering “HWD Regional from digital. Fee: $35 for three entries. to ceramic work completed in the last Maryland, Baltimore “Daily Com- Sculpture Competition 2011” (November Contact Mulvane Art Museum, 1700 three years. Juried from digital. No fee panions” (March 3–April 14, 2012) 6–December 10) open to sculpture by IN, SW College Ave., Topeka, KS 66621; for three entries. Contact Ina Širca, open to functional and dysfunctional KY, MI, OH, PA, and WV artists. Juried [email protected]; 785-670- ZDSLU (Association of the Slovene Fine cups and wares. Juried from digital. from digital. Fee: $20 for three entries. Ju- 1124; www.washburn.edu/mulvane.

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org september 2011 79 SPOTlighT in service of food Ryan Fletcher’s Tapas Micros project began as a BFA degree show in collaboration with a chef. it has expanded from there, exploring the gap between gallery and restaurant.

CM: What questions RF: The questions considered this because of the relatively small did you ask the chef re- I asked her were size of the pieces. One could fit about 35 garding preferences for about the kinds pieces into a small Tupperware container. shapes, surfaces, etc? of things she had seen in the CM: Were there RF: Not really. The various restaurants she had worked in. She told specific dishes that thing that was me, “Only white or black, and only glossy,” inspired or led to a most inspiring was explaining that colors compete with the food. successful design? thinking about I also did a lot of research in high-end high-end restaurant restaurant product catalogs. I found that most chefs and how they prepare food. One thing I manufactured ware is made to literally frame noticed about all the chefs I worked with is that the food; using the rims of plates and bowls. they, for the most part, have incredible control Instead of framing the food, I wanted to over the consistency of their food. These chefs elevate it, by making a pedestal for it, or add weren’t making heavy pasta dishes with runny dimensionality to it by linking it to another form. sauces that filled the plate; the reductions were thickened precisely, and sauces stayed where CM: How were the RF: The forms are they were put. Not every piece of ceramic dishes used, and based on the idea of needs severe indentations, or high rims, or that the presentation of the food was just as what did you learn the “micro menu” or large open surfaces. Essentially, I was creating important as the preparation. from this? tasting menu of several sculptural pedestals for the food in the hopes small courses some that the pedestal would somehow inspire the CM: How did you RF: The testing was chefs use to show off their abilities, so I made formal aspects of the chef’s creation. ensure that the done in actual use. small shapes that had a relatively small serving pieces would stand The kitchen at Lill’s on area to accommodate that. CM: How did cus- RF: It’s hard to judge up to heavy restau- 17th (the restaurant All the pieces were made to be versatile, so tomers react to reactions specifically, rant use? where the project I never made a “risotto plate,” for instance. Tapas Micros, and but no one was angry began) is very small, There are a few designs that are closer to most did that change or mad at me, which and everything is hand washed. This poses a people’s idea of what a spoon is and those with the venue? is good. problem because the handling and stacking of were used—meaning handled, or picked up. I don’t think I wanted dishes, even in water filled sinks is the reason Others were thought of more as decoration or everyone to pick up all the pieces, and I don’t for most of the chipping and breakage of all pedestals and simply left on the plate. think all the designs were successful, but it was the ware they use. At the event in chef Celina The servers and dishwashers did their normal an experiment. The pieces have been sent to Tio’s Julian, they were washed in an industrial work, but seemed a little afraid sometimes. several galleries and set up in various ways that sanitizer, which minimized contact. Nothing Part of their jobs is not breaking things, and accentuate their sculptural, repetitive qualities. broke at all there. I also noticed that most I think the irregularity of the objects created I think people responded positively to that. people are more careful with dishes when you a bit of anxiety in a few of them. Most of the The chefs and I responded differently to say you made them. I think we average about pieces are designed to be picked up, but the working in a gallery, and I think the customers one broken piece per event, which isn’t bad. patrons were typically apprehensive about did as well; in restaurants there is pressure to touching them. make food that will be generally acceptable to CM: What was your RF: I never did the Almost every chef commented on the fact a large audience, but in an art gallery anything involvement with actual serving. I spoke that none of my dishes were stackable. I never goes. For an installation we called “Comfort serving the food on with some of the Food,” we served three tapas: your own dishes? guests as they ate, but Hojaldre de Lingua (puff pastry I really wanted to exist with beef tongue), Ensalada as a part of the normal restaurant experience Tibia de Estomago (cold so we tried to leave things “business as usual.” salad of celery, carrot, onion, I was a dishwasher at several events, and this and beef tripe) and Corazon was actually a great experience. A few times, I con Tomate (seared beef was involved in plating the food, which is my heart simmered and served favorite job in the restaurant. I love the idea of in a Mediterranean tomato making food more appetizing by turning it into sauce). I went into the project a piece of art someone is going to eat. This is thinking people would be the reason I made Tapas Micros. I really just generally turned off by the wanted to be on the plate with the chef. food. However, we prepared food for 250 people and it was You can read the complete interview, as well as gone in the first hour of the Fletcher’s full account of the project, and see opening. There were menus more images, at www.ceramicsmonthly.org. To printed and all the ingredients learn more about Ryan Fletcher and what he’s were clearly listed. This told me up to, see www.ryanfletcherdesign.com.

80 september 2011 www.ceramicsmonthly.org

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