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Direct: (845) 339-3721 Fax: (845) 339-5530 thewww.ceramicsmonthly.org Difference. may 2014 1 2 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 3 new 13 fabulous monthly glazes added to our line of Editorial [email protected] telephone: (614) 794-5869 amazing cone 6 glazes fax: (614) 891-8960 editor Sherman Hall managing editor Jessica Knapp associate editor Holly Goring editorial support Jan Moloney editorial support Linda Stover Advertising/Classifieds [email protected] telephone: (614) 794-5834 fax: (614) 891-8960 classifi[email protected] telephone: (614) 794-5826 national sales director Mona Thiel advertising services Marianna Bracht Marketing telephone: (614) 794-5809 marketing manager Steve Hecker audience development manager Sandy Moening Subscriptions/Circulation customer service: (800) 342-3594 [email protected] Design/Production production associate Erin Pfeifer design Boismier John Design digital design specialist Melissa Bury Editorial and advertising offices 600 Cleveland Ave., Suite 210 Westerville, Ohio 43082 Publisher Charles Spahr Editorial Advisory Board Linda Arbuckle; Professor, Ceramics, Univ. of Florida Scott Bennett; Sculptor, Birmingham, Alabama Serving potters since 1975! Dick Lehman; Studio Potter, Indiana Meira Mathison; Director, Metchosin Art School, Canada Quality Products! Excellent Service! Great Prices! Phil Rogers; Potter and Author, Wales Jan Schachter; Potter, California Visit our web site to see many exciting new products Mark Shapiro; Worthington, Massachusetts Susan York; Santa Fe, New Mexico 1-800-304-6185 www.tuckerspottery.com 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 No other oval kiln can match mailing offices. Opinions expressed are those of the contributors and do the features of the Cone Art not necessarily represent those of the editors or The American Ceramic Society. The publisher makes no claim as to the food safety of pub- BX4227D Oval ! 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. The original true cone 10 kiln subscription rates: One year $34.95, two years $59.95, three years $89.95. Canada: One year $49, two years $89, since 1982 three years $135. International: One year $60, two years $99, three years $145. back issues: When available, back issues are $7.50 each, 32% less plus $3 shipping/handling; $8 for expedited shipping (UPS 2-day air); and $9 for shipping outside North America. Allow HEAT LOSS 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 2.5” brick 15699, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5699. contributors: Writing and photographic guidelines plus 1” are available online at www.ceramicsmonthly.org. insulation indexing: Visit the Ceramics Monthly website at Double Wall www.ceramicsmonthly.org to search an index of article titles and Construction artists’ names. Feature articles are also indexed in the Art Index, daai (design and applied arts index). copies: Authorization to photocopy items for internal • Massive 16.5 cubic feet. or personal use beyond the limits of Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law is granted by The American Ceramic • 3.5” thick walls Society, ISSN 0009-0328, provided that the appropriate fee • 4” thick lid and floor. is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923, USA; (978) 750-8400; • Patented lid lifter. www.copyright.com. Prior to photocopying items for classroom • Element in floor for more use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. This consent does not extend to copying items for general even firing distribution, or for advertising or promotional purposes, or to republishing items in whole or in part in any work in any format. • 3 zone Bartlett control at no Please direct republication or special copying permission requests extra charge to the Publisher, The Ceramic Publications Company; a subsidiary of The American Ceramic Society, 600 Cleveland Ave., Suite 210, • Sectional design so easy to move Westerville, Ohio 43082, USA. postmaster: Send address changes to Ceramics Monthly, P.O. Box 15699, North Hollywood, CA 91615-5699. Form www.coneartkilns.com 3579 requested. Copyright © 2014, The Ceramic Publications Company; a subsidiary 1-800-304-6185 of The American Ceramic Society. All rights reserved. www.ceramicsmonthly.org

4 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org “ When I work I think a lot. Mostly it’s not about that which is in front of me. That action is generally a spontaneous response. I think about who is forming whom at this moment. Lately, due in part to the passing of my dear friends and heroes, I have been thinking about time. It is the greatest gift of all, yet we take it for granted. This gift of time, what shall I do with it? How much time is there? Will I waste it by worrying about the RULES, yesterday’s idea, or about laborious, extraneous techniques before I need them? I choose not to.”

Don Reitz 1929-2014

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 5 contentsmay 2014 volume 62, number 5

editorial

8 From the Editor Sherman Hall 10 Letters exposure 12 Images from Current and Upcoming Exhibitions reviews 40 Kirk Mangus and Sebastian Moh In an unlikely pairing that showcases distinctly different approaches toward surface designs in contemporary ceramics, Greenwich House Pottery in New York, New York, recently exhibited a two-person show of tea bowls by Kirk Mangus and Sebastian Moh. Reviewed by Anthony Merino techno file

78 Bloating by Dave Finkelnburg Bloating in fired clay is always a puzzle. How is it possible for a fired object to have its surface distorted by an unsightly, unintended bulge that wasn’t present when the work was loaded into the kiln? The challenge with bloating is getting past that frustration to focus on preventing it from recurring. tips and tools

80 Sanding Bow by John Dadmun Getting the perfect surface on your clay pieces is often a combination of choosing the right materials, smart timing of tasks, and knowing which is the best tool for the job. Here’s a low-tech tool to help with at least one part of that equation. resources 93 Call for Entries Information on submitting work for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals. 94 Classifieds Looking to buy? Looking to sell? Look no further. 95 Index to Advertisers spotlight 96 Looking Back, Finding Threads Ben Krupka, one of our 2002 emerging artists, reflects back on the evolution of his work over the last twelve years and how making changes to his body of work is 13 both frightening and exhilarating.

6 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org clay culture

20 Saving Jingdezhen by Yuqian Chen Jingdezhen has been a ceramic powerhouse for more than 1000 years. It’s weathered some tough economic times in the last century, but a combination of preservation and diversifying the economy may help it spring back.

22 Ceramics and Biochemistry by staff Ceramic materials are primarily used in industry in ways we are familiar with, but medical uses of clay and iron oxide, along with advances in biocemetation, are expanding the use of those materials in ways we never imagined. studio visit 26 Justin Rothshank, Goshen, Indiana Starting with a small studio and a big kiln, Justin Rothshank has slowly built his pottery into a highly functional, multi-faceted operation. features

30 Wayne Higby: Geographies of a Mind by Peter Held Wayne Higby’s long and distinguished career includes several highly successful and diverse bodies of work. His passion for landscape, both cultural and physical, have inspired them all.

36 Albert Pfarr: Equilibrium by Kathleen Whitney Building monumental clay sculpture presents some technical hurdles, but Albert Pfarr’s additive processes, which fit well with the botanical and organic references of his forms, prove to be elegant solutions. 45 Emerging Artists 2014 46 Lauren Mabry, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 47 Kwok-Pong (Bobby) Tso, Maryville, Missouri 48 YunWook Mun, Birmingham, Michigan 52 Jessica Brandl, West Palm Beach, Florida 53 Cheyenne Chapman Rudolph, Gainesville, Florida 54 Jonathan Mess, Jefferson, Maine 60 Thomas Edwards, Lincoln, Nebraska 61 Bill Wilkey, Columbia, Missouri 62 Eric Knoche, Asheville, North Carolina 68 Miles Spadone, Portland, Maine 69 Caterina Roma, Barcelona, 72 Dawn Dishaw, Easthampton, Massachusetts 73 Brett Kern, Elkins, West Virginia 74 Kevin Rohde, Baltimore, Maryland recipes

84 High-Fire and Atmospheric Glazes by Caterina Roma and Bill Wilkey Two of this year’s emerging artists share glaze and slip recipes that create highly individualized surfaces in cone 10 and atmospheric firings. 61

86 Low-Fire to Mid-Range Slips and Glazes by Lauren Mabry and YunWook Mun Looking for a casting slip, engobe, and glaze base that work well to create vibrant color responses at low-fire or mid-range temperatures? Look no further than the recipes shared by two of our emerging artists. cover: Lauren Mabry, cylinder, 13 in. (33 cm) in height, red , slips, glaze, 2012.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 7 from the editor respond to [email protected]

Well, here’s hoping that spring has sprung wherever you live. I think the examples set by this year’s Emerging Artists as inspiration to for most of us in North America, this winter put us on lock down. rededicate myself in the studio. I am looking to reconnect to clay in Now, before you go rolling your eyes because I’m talking about the a way that is personally honest, that will make the most of the time weather in my editor’s column, hear me out. Weather is something I have in the studio, and that will focus on what will make me the we all have in common, and because of its intensity this winter, most satisfied with my clay work. For me, this means clearing some it has affected many of us more intensely than usual. It’s affected clutter, limiting the palette, and focusing on just one thing at a time. everything from business to politics to our personal health and lives. Of course, if we do this right, none of us will ever be totally satis- So here is why I’m talking about it: fied in the studio, but I would encourage each of you to consider I periodically do some cold calling to subscribers who have let what that would look like for you. Simply having that ideal in your their subscriptions lapse, just to get an honest sense of why they mind can help move you toward it. And if there is something we chose not to renew, and if there is something in the mix of what can do here at CM to move you toward it—short of making spring we’re presenting that could be improved. Don’t worry if I ever call come sooner—I trust you will let me know. you about this; I’m pretty nice about it, and I’m not even set up to take your money, so I’m not trying to sign you up again. This winter and spring, what I mostly heard was that folks were simply overwhelmed, busy, and checked out. More than half simply forgot to renew, or meant to but didn’t, or had so much going on that they just let it slip by. But all of them mentioned the weather as a contributing factor, which has never happened before. It was a real Sherman Hall eye-opener for me, because the reasons are usually based on finances or content, or that there is just too much demand on their time. And we’re not just dealing with this as magazine publishers and readers, we’re all dealing with it as makers as well; how do we get enough time in the studio, enough time to keep the books, market our work, sell what we make? These are some of the questions we try to deal with in Ceramics Monthly, that we discuss as possible topics for content and issues in the field that matter to most of us. But there is, at the end of the day, a larger issue that we all have in common—like the weather—that influences how we approach ceramics, and that is how to find a way to ignore all of these details and just focus on our clay work and produce work that we are proud of and that represents us in the world—which, after all, is the start and end of all of this. We have this question in common, but the solutions are as different as each of us. One of the most encouraging signs I see that indicates people are able to address this concern is that we continue to see talented, dedicated people entering the field and making work that is personal, refined, and honest. Take a look through this year’s Emerging Artists (starting on page 45) and I think you’ll agree. For some of them, the answer is finding residencies that will allow them time and space to focus on their work, for some it’s making the most of whatever bits of time and space they can carve out at home. Regardless of the specifics, it’s clear that each of them has made a conscious choice to make clay a priority in their lives. This sounds like such a simple thing, but we each struggle with it every day. I, for one, am taking

8 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 9 letters email [email protected]

Curiosity slowing down to take a good look are inherent. we agreed to postpone my visit until spring. I About three years ago, I wrote a commentary It is a doorway. Figuring out why you’re curi- recently learned that Nils died on Christmas ous about something is the path the doorway Day, 2013. that appeared in Ceramics Monthly regarding why it is important to be able to talk about opens to (a path which usually leads to more In my “other life,” I was an English professor, work and describe why you like something and deeper curiosity, rather than just answers). and at Bloomsburg University in the early ’90s, (“The Poetics of Analysis,” January, 2011). The We are seeing the repercussions of a genera- I developed a learning cluster with Karl Beamer, main reasons cited are that it leads to deeper tion raised on “No Child Left Behind,” where the ceramics professor there. Beamer invited inquiry and discovery in your work, and that individual curiosity was not a priority, so this is me to join him and his students, and I have if you can’t articulate why something looks a potent issue. The opposite of superficiality is been a clay artist ever since. Beamer and Shiho interesting to you, you are bound to imitation. not just being deep and serious. When it comes Kanzaki collaborated on building an anagama I’ve been thinking there is a more potent and to following your curiosity, it can often look a kiln at Beamer’s home about that same time. less academic way of looking at this, and that bit wild and outrageous. As a result, I also fired with many people who is in terms of curiosity. If it’s not important to Stanton Hunter, Sierra Madre, California have been a wonderful inspiration to me. I think you to figure out why you are curious about about them a lot. something, or it doesn’t even register that you’re Other Lives I have written a blog post about Nils and his curious about something, you stay superficial as I fired for many years with Nils Lou at East wife Diane (who died last year) and about Toshi- an artist, perhaps as a person. Curiosity is your Creek Kiln in Willamina, Oregon, and last ko Takaezu, another of the wonderful artists who own personal and powerful GPS device. Noth- November was planning to observe his classes I met through Beamer, and who inspired me. The ing is easier or more satisfying than pursuing for a day at Linfield College, where, at the age full post can be found at http://ngillblog.com. something you’re curious about. The benefits of of 81, he still taught. Because of snow and ice, Nancy E. Gill, Lilliwaup, Washington

undergrad showcase 2014call for entry

The September 2014 issue of Ceramics Monthly will feature clay work by undergraduate students All undergraduate students enrolled in ceramics classes at accredited post-secondary educational institutions, including 2014 graduates, are encouraged to apply.

To be considered, please submit the following: • Up to 5 high-resolution digital images (300 ppi) on a CD Arrival deadline: • Full-size color print of each image • Complete caption information for each image June 24, 2014 • 500 words discussing the body of work being submitted Mail to: • Contact information including email address Ceramics Monthly, Undergrad Showcase • Institution at which you study and instructor name(s) 600 N. Cleveland Ave., Suite 210 Westerville, OH 43082

Submissions arriving after the deadline, emailed submissions, and submissions contain- ing more than five images will not be considered. We are unable to acknowledge receipt

of materials due to the volume of submissions, and no phone calls please. Notification of Catie Miller’s Clutter Challenged, 24 in. (61 cm) in height, earthenware, acceptance will be emailed by the end of July. Submitted materials will not be returned. colored slip, 2013. Ceramics Monthly 2013 Undergraduate Showcase.

10 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org “In three years, I have run 35 tons of beautifully blended clay through this amazing mixer-pugmill.” Paul Latos, Linn Pottery using the Bailey MSV25 Mixer-Pugmill

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1 Daniel Lafferty’s storage jar, 15 in. (38 cm) in height, local Cobargo NSW clay, wood-fired , 2013. 2 Ben Richardson’s foliage vase, Headland series, 8¼ in. (21 cm) in height, unglazed, wood-fired stoneware, 2010. Photo: Robin Roberts. 3 Sandy Lockwood’s Enclosure series, 15 in. (38 cm) in length, salt glaze, wood-fired stoneware, 2013. 6 4 Moraig McKenna’s Three Baskets, 22¾ in. (58 cm) in length, wood-fired , 2013. “Homage,” at Narek Galleries (www.narekgalleries.com) in Tanja, New South Wales, Australia, May 2–June 9. 5 Linda Heisserman’s carved platter, 17 in. (43 cm) in diameter, wheel-thrown porcelain, 2013. Photo: Courtney Frisse. 6 Hsin-Yi Huang’s Dark Flower, 10 in. (25 cm) in height, porcelain, fired to cone 8, 2013. Photo: Annie Foong. “Oregon Potters Association 32nd Annual Ceramic Showcase,” at the Oregon Convention Center (www.ceramicshowcase.com) in Portland, Oregon, May 2–4.

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1–2 Monica Rudquist’s Bloom, installation view and detail, 6 ft. (1.8 m) in length, Grolleg porcelain, crackle glaze, fired to cone 10 in reduction, 2014. 3 John George Larson’s Atlas, 15 in. (38 cm) in diameter, native clay, 2013. 4 Karin Kraemer’s Bee Charger, 12 in. (31 cm) in diameter, red earthenware, majolica glaze. “Red River Reciprocity: Contemporary Ceramics in Minnesota and North Dakota,” at Plains Art Museum (www.plainsart.org) in Fargo, North Dakota, through May 11. 5 John Jessiman’s Drum Vase, 17 in. (43 cm) in height, white stoneware, wood fired, 2014. “New Work by John Jessiman,” at Clayscapes Pottery (www.clayscapespottery.com) in Syracuse, New York, May 2–30. 6 Joe Pintz’s oval lidded box, 9¾ in. (25 cm) in length, handbuilt earthenware, fired to cone 02, 2013. Photo: Jeffery Bruce. “Joseph Pintz: Ceramics,” 1 at Penland Gallery (www.penland.org) in Penland, North Carolina, May 23–June 22.

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1 Per Ahlmann’s Oh My God!, 30¾ in. (78 cm) in length, 2013. 2 Lone Skov Madsen’s Dot Series, 17¾ in. (45 cm) in height, handbuilt stoneware, engobe, glaze, 2013. 3 Per Ahlmann’s Ontologicum Cum, 13¾ in. (35 cm) in length, , 2012. 4 Lone Skov Madsen’s black object, 9¾ in. (25 cm) in height, stoneware, 2013. 5 (Left) Lone Skov Madsen’s, Black Series Platter, 19¾ (50 cm) in diameter, stoneware, 2013. (Right) Per Ahlmann’s Transitu Sub, 3 ft. 7¾ in. (1.1 m) in height, faience, handbuilt, 2013. All photos: Per Ahlmann. “Checkpoint,” at Copenhagen Ceramics 5 (www.copenhagenceramics.com) Frederiksberg, Denmark, May 2–25.

16 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org A POD NESTLED AMONG THE OAKS

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1–2 Nathan Craven’s Luminance, installation and detail view, 20 ft. (6 m) in length, ceramic, 2014. 3 Annabeth Rosen’s Budge, 18 in. (46 cm) in length, glazed ceramic, rubber inner tube, 2012. 4 Susan Beiner’s Unintended Circumstances, 8 ft. (2.3 m) in length, porcelain, foam, graphite, wood, 2014. Photo: Peter Bugg. 5 Michael Fujita’s Segment, 15 in. (38 cm) in width, glazed ceramic, 2009. “Muck” at Arizona State University Art Museum (www.asuartmuseum.asu.edu) in Tempe, Arizona, through May 31.

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 19 clay culture

saving jingdezhen by Yuqian Chen What is happening to the cultural heritage of Jingdezhen? To the city ’s famous ceramic factories? To the once abundant skilled ceramic craftsmen? Is enough being done to save this rich heritage?

Jingdezhen, with its outstanding ceramic culture, was one of the threat to other historic structures. Although nothing earthshaking first cities (along with 23 others) listed as a famous historical and has happened, the consequences of the city’s historic identity be- cultural city by the State Council of China in 1982. It is unique ing nibbled bit by bit are still problematic as the changes become in the world in that it has been supported by only one industry for harder to see and quantify. The preservation of Jingdezhen’s ceramic more than 1000 years. But today, those who make the pilgrimage heritage has been troubled due to a lack of reasonable planning and to the “Ceramic Capital” may be disappointed that the history they visionary management. have read in books and the ceramic pieces appreciated in museums True, Jingdezhen is not the birthplace of , around the world can be hard to find in the physical city. but has become one of the craft’s most prominent representatives. The 1000-years of kiln firing in the city have forged the rich In the course of historical development, Jingdezhen has produced cultural heritage of Jingdezhen, which can not only be reflected countless ceramic treasures, and numerous ceramic artists with by the ceramics it has produced, but also felt in every corner of superb craftsmanship, as well as a complete ceramic industry. This this ancient town, however, some are disappearing: time-honored cultural heritage is unique in the world, towering over any other streets and alleys, adobes and ceramic kilns, private houses ceramic production, national or international. and public halls, porcelain stores and clay shops, quays and wharfs, In the early 1990s, there were ten major ceramics factories in as well as in the ceramic customs that have taken shape along the Jingdezhen with about 70,000 workers. With the decline of the course of ceramic production, all of which constitute the unique ceramic industry and the closure of a number of these factories, and precious cultural heritage of the ceramic capital. tens of thousands of workers were laid off and scattered to other In Jingdezhen, the cultural heritage is suffering: the under- industries. Some believe that Jingdezhen is no longer blessed with ground relics of the Imperial Kiln Factory are almost all gone; the advantage of skilled craftsmen. On the surface, it seems to be the “Pottery God Temple,” originally located in the official site of an indisputable fact, but the true number of ceramic craftsmen city government, has been relocated to the Ancient Kiln Factory; in Jingdezhen is amazing. A visit to private companies, family gone into thin air is the Fujian Hall (also known as “the Heavenly workshops, neighborhood shops, and nearby villages indicates Mother Temple”), which might be nothing special in the eyes of the amount of talent present. These industrial workers and skilled ordinary people, but once served as the direct witness of Jing- craftsmen are not the burden of Jingdezhen, they could be key dezhen’s overseas ceramic trade and had been recorded and saluted players in the revitalization of Jingdezhen’s ceramics industry. by numerous foreign ceramic books. Even now, demolition is still a Moreover, the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute and several other

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20 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org research institutions in Jingdezhen have done a wonderful job cultivating professional workers over the years. Admittedly, Jingdezhen lags behind other cities in contempo- rary , but in terms of traditional ceramic techniques, the overall strengths and talents have remained in Jingdezhen. Even though some of the other ceramic production areas in China are using traditional ceramic techniques developed in Jingdezhen, without the connection to place, these techniques will naturally start to change as artists from different backgrounds adapt them to their own experiences. There are still many ceramic artists and workshops in Jingdezhen who stick to the credo of “achieving excellence,” and choose not to sell or exhibit unsatisfactory works. The revitalization of Jingdezhen ceramics depends on cultivat- ing both the workshops of famous artists, as well as larger factory 3 production based on not only artistic practices but also incorpo- rating advanced technology. As many artists are working all by themselves, the small scale of their production cannot compete with the large-scale ceramic companies in other regions that have professional design and development teams, massive production, well-built sales and logistics channels, and even after-sale service. Promoting cooperation and collaboration between ceramics and other industries is another development that would help to revitalize the field. Since the 1000th anniversary of Jingdezhen city, the development objective has been to shape itself to be a “Southern Jiangnan (South of the Yangtze River) tourist city with a relatively strong economy” and a focus on “unity between historical culture and modern civilization.” Uniting ceramics with advanced technology, cultural history, and tourism would make good use of Jingdezhen’s intangible and tangible heritage, and transform the city from the labor-intensive and energy-consuming city of the past into a more diversified, capital-intensive, and hopefully more 4 environmentally friendly one. I have toured several famous European historical and cultural 1 A dilapidated Jingdezhen ceramic factory. 2 A revitalized imperial kiln factory. 3 The area in Jingdezhen known as China porcelain city. 4 The homogeneous cities such as Rome, , and Paris and I was shocked that not and sometimes shoddy wares abundantly seen for sale only are their ancient monuments, buildings, and museums well on streets in Jingdezhen. All photos by Zhuoxuan Wang. preserved, but also their historic streets, bridges, and squares. You can vividly feel the unique charm of these places and appreciate its resources to apply for the membership of UNESCO’S Creative their rich culture as well as the locals’ sense of history and culture. Cities Network. If Jingdezhen could follow suit, then it would be a step closer Jingdezhen’s revitalization depends on the people living and to making a revival that is diversified, rather than dependent on working there, as well as others interested in the city’s cultural industry, a reality. contribution. The government officials in particular should be as The role of government in preserving cultural heritage and devoted as Tang Ying, a famous imperial ceramic supervisor dur- revitalizing Jingdezhen cannot be over emphasized. Fortunately, ing the . As long as Jingdezhen’s people show the Jingdezhen’s municipal government is currently sparing no effort same vision, heart, and ability as Tang Ying did, revitalization is to preserve the city’s cultural heritage. In 2003, the official site within reach. of the city government was relocated to preserve the Imperial Ceramic Factory. The Jingdezhen Ancient Kiln Folk Customs the author Yuqian Chen is professor and founder of Jingdezhen Stud- Museum was officially approved as a National AAAAA Scenic ies at the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in Jingdezhen city in Spot by the National Commission for Scenic Quality Assessment province in the People’s Republic of China. His text was translated of China in 2013 and the municipal government is optimizing all by Tiejun Hou.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 21 clay culture ceramic bio chemistry Materials familar to us from our studios are being used in a variety of fields, from green tech to medicine, in ways that might surprise you.

Greener Bricks Using Clay to Treat Kidney Disease On Ceramic Tech Today (http://ceramics.org/ceramic-tech-today), Another Ceramic Tech Today post highlighted the work of a German the online blog published by the scientific division here at company that is exploring the healing powers of clay to help treat The American chronic kidney disease. According to a press release on the research from Ceramic Society, January 2014 (http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/) our colleague, the two organizations partnered to conduct the research—the Associate Editor Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI in Dr. April Gocha, Rostock, , and the company FIM Biotech GmbH—dis- recently shared a covered that Friedländer clay, an old deposit with volcanic origins, story on a new shows promise as a new therapeutic agent in treating patients with technology that kidney disease. may make green “When suffering from renal failure, the body is unable to filter Ginger Krieg Dosier pictured with one of the bio- cement bricks she developed and is now offering buildings even out phosphates in sufficient quantities, and the resulting excess though the company she founded, bioMASON. more environ- is then absorbed into the blood,” according to the press release. mentally friendly. “This causes a build-up of calcium-phosphate deposits in the “A young North Carolina company, bioMASON, is making blood vessels, which can, over an extended period, lead to arterio- strides to soon offer biologically manufactured bricks for commer- sclerotic heart disease and premature death. Compared to people cial sale,” she writes. “Inspired by the biomineralization of calcium with healthy kidneys, those with compromised renal function are carbonate by coral, their simple, economical, and environmentally at least ten times more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke. To friendly process uses bacteria to cement together sand particles. counteract this increased risk, people suffering from chronic renal “The bacteria, Sporosarcina pasteurii, are not picky. They re- insufficiency are required to take phosphate binders with meals. In quire only the addition of nitrogen and calcium sources to produce the stomach and intestines, these medications bind to phosphates calcium carbonate, cementing together sand to grow a brick at from food so that they can be excreted undigested instead of being room temperature in less than a week. absorbed into the blood. The problem is that existing medications, “According to bioMASON’s website, ‘Traditional materials contain a high-embodied energy, and rely heavily on limited natural resources.’ By harnessing the work of microorganisms, bioMASON’s manufacturing process bypasses the need for high- temperature brick firing, eliminating hefty consumption of fossil fuels and corresponding release of carbon dioxide into the atmo- sphere. In addition, the process can be adapted to utilize industrial waste to provide nitrogen to the bacteria, eliminating other forms of pollution as well. “bioMASON recently won first place (i.e., cash prizes!) in two innovation contests, the Cradle to Cradle Innovation Challenge and the Dutch Postcode Green Challenge. According to the Dutch Postcode Green Challenge website, bioMASON founder and CEO Ginger Krieg Dosier had this to say: ‘With the prize money we will be able to achieve significant results faster and launch our sustainable bricks on a large scale. This is a huge encouragement.’ “bioMASON has also partnered with the Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC) at North Carolina State University to further product development. Although ‘the bricks compare favorably with traditional fired clay ones,’ according to Based on naturally occurring Friedländer clay, shown here in its raw BTEC’s website, bioMASON will next work on developing low-cost state: A new agent in the treatment of chronic kidney disease. Image production techniques to move their bricks closer to the market.” copyright FIM Biotech GmbH.

22 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org ceramic bio chemistry

such as calcium and aluminum salts, cause serious side-effects in- system to attack cluding constipation, hypercalcemia (an elevated level of calcium metastatic tumors in the blood), and neurologic disorders. that may not be “But hope is in sight for sufferers of chronic renal disease. recognized yet.’ Scientists from the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Im- “The results munology IZI in Rostock teamed up with FIM Biotech GmbH show directed heat to develop an effective therapeutic agent that patients can tolerate therapy to just one well. Formed by marine deposits of volcanic ash 60 billion years localized tumor in ago, clay minerals found in the Friedland area of north-east Ger- a mouse generates many provide the basis for the new agent. The clay first has to be a whole body-wide processed before being refined using a special technical process. immune response to “In a series of laboratory trials and cell culture experiments, those cancer cells.

the cooperation partners were able to prove the high phosphate- In this system, the Schematic diagram of how the immune binding capacity and tolerance rate of the clay minerals. ‘The lynchpin of the im- response, particularly CD8-positive T cells, phosphate binder obtained from pure mineralogical raw materials is mune response is mediates anti-tumor effects in local and distant tumors. Image courtesy of Norris Cotton Cancer just as effective as traditional pharmaceutical binders. It can lower activation of CD8+ Center, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center., renal patients’ elevated phosphate levels. Our tests using animal cells, otherwise and the journal Nanomedicine. models show that, unlike standard medications, our binder causes known as killer T only mild side-effects,’ says Professor Dr. Steffen Mitzner, head cells. Killer T cells are white blood cells that live up to their of the Working Group on Extracorporeal Immunomodulation in name—they’re kind of like tiny policemen in your blood, trolling Rostock and Professor of Nephrology at the city’s university. The for bad guys (e.g., cancer cells, virus-infected cells, or otherwise scientists believe that their refined natural raw material could also damaged cells) and taking them out. be used in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. “So treating a tumor to hot iron oxide nanoparticles helps kill “The Fraunhofer scientists and FIM Biotech GmbH have filed the localized tumor, but also posts ‘mug shots’ so that the rest of the a patent application for their agent and refining technique. . . . The immune system can recognize the bad guy and his accomplices. The scientists expect to be able to start passing on the benefits of the new response shows the immune system what to look for, allowing even agent to the first patients when clinical trials begin in early 2014.” distant immune cells to recognize rogue cancer cells and take them out. These new results are some of the latest in a promising new field Iron Oxide Nanoparticles of cancer research called cancer immunotherapy, which tries to harness Used in Anti-Tumor Treatment the killing power of the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. “The precise temperature of the nanoparticles was important ACerS Associate Editor Dr. April Gocha also shared a story on for the Dartmouth researchers’ results, which is why iron oxide advancements in the use of iron oxide in treating cancerous tumors. nanoparticles could have a big role in the future of tumor therapy. “Iron oxide nanoparticles aren’t new to the scene of cancer therapy,” The nanoparticles and magnetic field allowed the scientists to she explains. “But Dartmouth researchers have heated things up precisely control what was happening in the tumor, allowing fine- with a new study published online earlier this year in the journal tuning to find that cancer-killing sweet spot. Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine. “The developments are an exciting advance for the treatment “The scientists used an alternating magnetic field to heat iron of metastatic cancer. Metastasis occurs when tumor cells wander oxide nanoparticles injected directly into a mouse tumor, warming away from a tumor and find their way into the circulatory system, the nanoparticles to 109°F (43°C) for just half an hour. While you allowing the spread of cancer to distant sites. Metastatic cancer can imagine how heat kills local cells, the results show something is difficult to treat and often signals the end for cancer patients, more interesting is going on. because no current treatments can efficiently tackle nomadic can- “In a Dartmouth University press release, senior author and cer cells. Let’s hope this new development can help change that.” Dartmouth Genetics Professor Steven Fiering says, ‘The study demonstrates that controlled heating of one tumor can stimulate The paper is “Local Hyperthermia Treatment of Tumors Induces CD8+ an immune response that attacks another tumor that has not had T cell-Mediated Resistance Against Distal and Secondary Tumors” the heat treatment. This is one way to try to train the immune (DOI: 10.1016/j.nano.2014.01.011).

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 25 studio visit Justin Rothshank Goshen, Indiana

Just the Facts Studio I have a home studio. It’s located in the basement of my three-story garage, which is built Clay primarily earthenware, but also some into a hill and situated in a wooded, rural area. My wife is also an artist, and her studio stoneware and porcelain is in the house. The fact that both of us work at home makes managing childcare and Primary forming method workloads easier than if one of us worked offsite. wheel throwing My studio opens up into the backyard/kilnyard. The attic of the garage is my office/ Primary firing temperature photo area, and the main floor of the garage is storage for cars, boxes, bubble wrap, and all electric to cone 04, wood fired to sorts of other things. The studio itself is 600 square feet. It feels small, but because of its cone 10 size it seems to flow pretty well, since everything is nearly within arms reach! Additionally, Favorite surface treatment all my work tables, ware carts, and glaze buckets are on wheels so I can move them easily. decals of any kind I have three potter’s wheels in use regularly. One electric wheel is for standing to throw Favorite tools production work, another electric wheel is for sitting to throw large platters and large HP printer and a pair of scissors pots, and one treadle wheel is for trimming everything. I have two large work benches that are used for everything else, from attaching handles to glazing and applying decals, to storage. I also have in-floor (radiant) heat and solar panels generating electricity to sell back to our public service company and offset the electric bill. The studio has slowly morphed into a good, workable space. When the weather is warm enough, about nine months a year, the two sets of double doors are open all day long and I can look out into the woods and the yard. I love this, and also that my studio is at home. I do, however, wish the studio was larger and could accommodate a small gallery space. This is the biggest downside, but it has also forced me to be efficient with equipment and production schedules. I have an outdoor shed area that houses my electric kilns and another covered area for my wood kiln. The shed was added onto the workspace about three years ago, adding

26 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org about 300 square feet of covered, outdoor area that is good for free space under this shed roof is used for wood storage. In the storage of bisqueware and non-freezable items. I fire my electric next two years, I hope to build a small gas-fired soda kiln in this kilns 3–6 times a week and having them outside has been fantas- area as well. Wood comes from wherever I can find it cheaply or tic. If the kilns were inside the studio, in the summer, the heat free. Usually it’s a combination of downed trees from friends/ would be oppressive and in the winter, the smell/fumes would be neighbors, off cuts from a small Amish sawmill, and wood from detrimental. I need only to walk about 10 feet from my potter’s our property. wheel/ware carts to get to the kilns. This is a good situation for Work is constantly in flux in the studio. Because of its small production work. Even in the cold winter it’s been fine to fire size, I need to finish and ship a body of work regularly to make the kilns regularly. I just put them on preheat to load them, and room for new work to happen. Just this fall, I finished the attic unload them while they’re still warm. of my garage into an office/storage/photo area. This has added I have a 2–chamber wood kiln, with the rear chamber for soda. another 300 square feet of “clean” space. I am able to print ship- I fire it 3–4 times a year. I chose to build a large-ish kiln because of ping labels, design and print decals, and manage online sales in my interest in working with other regional clay artists. The wood this space instead of on my couch at 11 pm. kiln is a way for me to connect with other makers. I usually fill These two small additions to the original studio make my the rear chamber with my own work, and share most of the front total work space about 1200 square feet spread over three floors. chamber with 4–6 other artists who are interested in wood firing. While at times this is not ideal, for the most part I feel like its Each firing can hold 300–500 pieces so there’s plenty of space an excellent setup. to go around, and ample time for exchange of ideas and com- munity building. This work differs considerably from my regular Paying Dues (and Bills) production work, and wood firing is a way for me to change up I studied ceramics and sculpture at Goshen College after having my production routines and keep a fresh perspective. The kiln is an extremely enthusiastic and supportive high school ceramics located about 40 feet from the back door of my studio, under a teacher. Upon graduation, I moved to Pittsburgh to spend a year covered shed that is 20 feet wide and 50 feet long. Much of the as an apprentice for a cabinet maker/furniture designer. I did lots

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 27 of sanding, marquetry, and veneer work during this time, while Mind also making pots when I could. I also connected with a group I am a big fan of historical nonfiction, mostly biographies. I’ve of other young artists and we formed a non-profit organization called the Union Project (www.unionproject.org). This non-profit read the biographies of many of our presidents, including a very became my job and my passion for nearly nine years. I spent all in depth look at the life of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro. I my spare time making pots in my basement and in community love to read about political systems, management processes, and clay studios. I was able to connect with Dale Huffman at that general history. Really exciting stuff! I also read lots of books to time, and assist him in firing his wood kiln. Eventually, I started my children. a community clay studio in the Union Project (CM Jan 2007, I’ve found that I recharge creatively by watching what other pg. 28–31). One could say that much of my training in ceramics artists are doing and making, and engaging them in conversation has come from hands-on learning, watching others, and reading about it. I think this is one of my favorite reasons for wood fir- books and magazines. I’ve attended workshops over the years as ing, and the primary reason why I wanted my own wood kiln. well, picking up advice and techniques wherever I can. But I also enjoy going to exhibitions, working collaboratively I spend about 40–50 hours a week in the studio. I try to work with other artists, or thinking about ways to engage others in the a consistent schedule, and make an effort not to work on Sunday, creative process. unless I’m traveling or quickly loading a kiln. I don’t work any One of the most important things for me as an artist is to other job. continue to make work. I make lots of stuff, all the time. I try to salvage mistakes by experimenting with them more. Experiment- Body ing through making is an important part of the creative process I try to eat a healthy diet, mostly local organic foods. I try to sleep for me. eight hours a night, though that’s been difficult now that we have two boys under the age of five. I try to take a 20–40 minute walk Marketing five days a week. Regular exercise outside of walking has been Much of my business is wholesale. I sell to galleries, museum a struggle for me, though it continues to be a goal to strive for. shops, gift shops, and also do other bulk orders. This is 50% of Our family’s single biggest monthly expense is health insurance. my sales. I sell work online and do a yearly open house as part of We have to purchase our own, but this feels like an important the Michiana Pottery Tour, which account for around 25% of my investment in sustaining our lifestyle. sales. I consign work to half a dozen galleries and participate in

28 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org invitational and juried shows whenever I can. These sales makeup Some of my best wholesale customers have found me on Etsy or around 20% of the total. I teach workshops to round out the Facebook in recent years, but I’d never have been successful in final 5%. I use social media and email marketing to promote my those platforms without also finding customers through traditional work. Not having a retail space, I have felt that it was important galleries or craft shows. to photograph my work and put it online as soon as possible. One of my greatest successes online has been an annual, online Otherwise no one will see it. I have attended one trade show and only, April Fool’s Day sale. It’s been a way to introduce new people one large retail show each year for the last five years. So marketing to my work, offer a great discount on some new work along with between these shows has been essential. My photo booth is always regular production pieces, and make some sales during a time that up in my studio and I shoot images with my iPhone and try to has been traditionally slow for me. post the images regularly. This has served me well and allowed me A regular frustration with my online experience is that I feel to make sales while cultivating feedback about new work from a like it only portrays a portion of me and my work. Misconceptions broad audience. It’s also allowed me to feel some connection with and misunderstandings perpetuate very easily online, and I don’t a larger clay community while working in a rural setting. think there’s a good option for addressing this. Because much of my business is wholesale, and this method works well for me and my family, I’ve chosen wholesale markets to Best Advice present my work. I’ve found a mix of markets through having an I think the best piece of advice is to simply make lots of work. online presence, showing up at wholesale trade shows, and mak- There’s no replacement for time in the studio, making new things ing connections in less traditional handmade markets. Utilizing out of clay. Getting better happens through practice, ideas grow my knowledge of ceramic decals has made it relatively simple to through repetition, and new work evolves over periods of time design work for a very focused audience, like fans of the band, invested in making. The Steel Wheels, or patrons of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine for example. www.rothshank.com I’ve also found that my market continues to grow as I find www.facebook.com/justinrothshankceramics ways to continue making work on a regular basis. Customers www.rothshank.etsy.com and clients come and go, by my longevity in the field has allowed www.instagram.com/jrothshank my work to get out in both the real world and the virtual world. www.youtube.com/jrothshank

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 29 Wayne Higby Geographies

of a Mindby Peter Held

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Wayne Higby is a consummately self-aware artist whose reflections Defining Moments on his own work are at once poetic, profound, and unassailable. Growing up in the foothills of Colorado Springs, Higby embraced The arc of his career tests one’s grasp of how mind, space, and the vast landscape of the American West. An only child, he found landscape coalesce. Early ascension placed him at the forefront solace, joy, and mystery within the great outdoors with its craggy of the American ceramics movement during an era of explosive rock outcroppings, hidden caves, and majestic views of Pikes Peak. growth and originality. It would be too simplistic to define him In 1961 he enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder, only as an innovator of raku-firing; although his iconic raku bowl where he pursued his interest in the arts, he became an art major forms made during the 1970s and 1980s are considered to be his with the idea of being a painter. signature works, his technique never gave primacy over content. In his junior year he took six months to travel with family As his story unfolds and as his breadth of work demonstrates, a friends, visiting , Southeast Asia, India, Greece, and southern broader perspective is needed for an artist equally committed to Europe. For someone who had led a sheltered childhood, it became studio practice, and as well as his role as an educator, writer, and shockingly apparent in Calcutta, India, that humanity was far world traveler. broader than first imagined. A self-imposed four-day quarantine

30 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org in his hotel room questioned his role in the world. In hindsight, the experience propelled him toward a vision of humanity and art, which solidified his commitment to teaching. The group then traveled to Greece, which proved to be another epiphany that would encourage a lifetime in clay. Standing entranced in front of cases of Minoan pottery, Higby began to grasp the integration of painted motifs on three-dimensional forms. Ceramics never entered into his conversations with the art faculty prior to this experience, and when he returned, he sought out George Woodman, who taught paint- ing, drawing, and philosophy of art. Trying to assimilate and grasp the import of his enthusiasm for pottery, he was soon connected to George’s wife, the potter Betty Woodman. No better guide was possible, and Higby focused on ceramics during his last year at university. Meanwhile a visiting artist at Boulder, Manuel Neri, imparted new perspectives on the burgeoning West Coast ceramic movement, revealing the work of Peter Voulkos, Henry Takemoto, and John Mason, among others. 2 Higby was introduced to Paul Soldner, who came to the “Fire House” for a raku workshop (Betty Woodman taught ceramics for the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department; the facility was a defunct fire station). Higby continued to focus on clay as a graduate student at the Uni- versity of Michigan, where he studied with the iconoclast Fred Bauer, who was working on his slab-constructed sarcophagi series, and John Stephenson, a more calming presence in the studio. During his graduate studies, Higby focused on the evaluation and absorption of historical pottery: Minoan, Greek, Chinese, and Islamic ware held a strong fas- cination after his world travels. He continued his interest in raku firing and experimented with Egyptian paste as a means to integrate surface and form. Visual beauty, a term many artists shun today, was embraced by Higby as he developed his individual artistic vision. After completing his MFA, Higby was hired at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, where he taught from 1968 to 1970, followed by a three-year stint at the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1969 he participated in the “Young Americans” exhibition held at the Museum 3 of Contemporary Crafts (now the Museum of Arts and Design), New York, and in “Objects: USA,” and at the age of 30, the Museum of Contemporary Crafts presented the solo exhibition “Wayne Higby/ Ceramic Landscapes.” This meteoric trajectory provided validation and exposure for the artist.

A Journey through Forms Higby’s boxes, bowls, and sculptures have been widely interpreted as three-dimensional landscapes in the tradition of American landscape art—an interpretation the artist patently and repeatedly refutes. Like the

1 EarthCloud Sketch/Gold 3, 27 in. (69 cm) in length, glazed porcelain with gold luster, 2012. Collection of the artist. 2 Inlaid Plate, 13½ in. (34 cm) in diameter, glazed earthenware, raku fired, 1968. 3 Orange Grass Marsh, 9 in. (23 cm) in height, glazed earthenware, raku fired, 1976. 4 Chimerical Bay, 18¼ in. (21 cm) in length, glazed earthenware, raku fired, 1988. Collection of Barry 4 and Irene Fisher. 1–4 Photos: Brian Oglesbee.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 31 5

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nineteenth-century luminist painters of the Hudson River School objects, which in their timelessness marry decorative motifs of the whom Higby greatly admires, the artist engages landscape as “the past with the burgeoning eclecticism of their era. Swirling spirals, panoramic outer membrane of an inner manifestation of unity— found in numerous Megalithic world cultures, are evocative of a silent, unseen, unknowable resonance of coherence.”3 These the Minoan octopus motifs the artist first viewed at the Heraklion opulent radiant landscapes evoked nostalgic, or elegiac, emotive Museum on Crete, emphasizing the circularity of form, creating a personal connections with the past, in contrast to a topographer’s unified and abstracted whole. Although Higby salt fired the first of matter-of-fact objective recordings of the present. these plates, raku was to be his preferred firing method and would In Higby’s creative palette, space is not bounded by the ves- remain so for the next two decades. sel’s walls but stretches without limit as far as the viewer’s eye and In 1969 Higby traveled throughout the American Southwest, imagination will allow. Just as a model-maker fits a ship into a the West Coast, and the plains of Montana, which would further bottle, Higby, with a spatial mastery uniquely his own, nestles alter the course of his art and, ultimately, his life. This shift can buttes, canyons, rivers . . . an entire cosmos in a bowl. Peering over be seen in Partly Cloudy (1970), one of the artist’s first sculptural the rim, the result is at once immense and intimate, horizonless boxes decorated with natural imagery—clouds, mountains, sea— and sheltered. inside and out. In this piece Higby reclaims the landscapes of his His early works, Inlaid Plates (1) and Inlaid Luster Jar, were youth and begins to develop, through an ingenious combination inspired by his multi-continent odyssey. The artist’s eye for pattern of reduction and oxidation, the palette—turquoise, sea green, coupled with his already deft craftsmanship elevates these novice mottled rust, stony gray, and creamy white—that would become

32 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org one of the signatures of his body of work. An ongoing interest in remarkable ability to convey a continuity between inner and outer architecture and organized structure informed the box series, a landforms belie not only the inventiveness of his work to come but format to harness nature’s expansiveness into a contained shape. also create a new vocabulary of the vessel itself. For Higby, innovation in art was never about creating new forms He remarked during this period, “In my work, it is the com- but rather forging new connections, and for the next two decades monplace bowl that serves as the known point of departure, the he would conjure, bend, and unfurl space within traditional pottery starting point for chains of associated memory. As an artist, I am in forms. In “boxes” such as Orange Grass Marsh (3), the vessel walls pursuit of a connection or series of connections between my emo- grow bulbous, the edges soften, until the form appears almost as tional attraction to ceramics and my responsiveness to landscape.”5 an inverted bowl. Higby had only to turn the bowl right- side up to attain the “infinite space”—in the artist’s own words, “space beyond the physical”4—that would seal his legacy as a ceramics innovator. Orange Grass Marsh has an irregular cut base, reinforcing the ruggedness of nature itself. Inherent in the firing process, the variegated coloration and crackled glazes coupled with smoky raw clay surfaces elevate the work’s visual drama. The lumpen cloud formation serves as a handle floating in space, acting as organic counterpoints to the more formalist base form. Over a decade, his box series would become far more elaborate in both form and imagery. Tower Lands Win- ter (5), a tour de force, is perhaps Higby’s culminating achievement within this series. Five interlocking lidded boxes are conjoined at right angles and, with their sheer vertical rise, provide a true sense of the expansiveness of a high desert plateau, on the magnitude of the broad range of the American West. With both ends contoured and eroded into gentle slopes, they bracket the center land- mass, anchoring the work. Here, the artist works his il- lusionistic bag of tricks with the white ground contrasting the iron-streaked sandstone cliffs, projecting and receding space, pulling the viewer’s attention into an imaginary center. Unfolding like Chinese screen , a topo- graphical storyline bleeds from one container to the next. The meandering blue waters zigzag through canyon lands, unifying interlocking motifs and color fields.

Intimate and Immense Bowls During the mid-1970s, soon after arriving at Alfred University, Higby started in earnest to work with the large bowl form that is both universal and classic. Deeply committed to pottery with all its historical references and human associations, the concave and convex walls with their soft sweeping ovoid rims provide ample volume to mine his interplay of real and illusionary space. Freed from terra firma, the artist’s works distill memory, feeling, observation, and perception into a unified vision. Return to White Mesa (6), with its thin flaring walls and eerily limitless imagery, attests to the magnitude and power of Higby’s breakthrough. Its bone-chilling 8 associations, conjuring stark winter vistas found on high 5 Tower Lands Winter, 35½ in. (90 cm) in length, glazed earthenware, raku fired, 1998. desert plateaus, succinctly capture an austere beauty Collection of Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, Arizona. 6 Return to White and remoteness. One can almost hear the wind wailing Mesa, 22 in. (56 cm) in length, glazed earthenware, raku fired, 1978.7 Green River Gorge, 9½ in. (24 cm) in length, glazed earthenware, raku fired. 8 Intangible Notch, through sheer-walled canyons. His tentative investiga- 11 ft. (3.4 m) in height, glazed earthenware, raku fired, 1995. Commission for Arrow tions structuring space through blocks of color and his International, Reading, Pennsylvania. 5–8 Photos: Brian Oglesbee.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 33 Throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, the humble his approach, working within a fixed architectural space on a scale bowl would grow into something iconic in Higby’s hands—un- unfamiliar with his past studio practice. bounded, mythical, shape-shifting. Just as Higby’s “boxes” refused Lacuna Rock (1999), the earliest (and smallest) earthenware to remain boxes in a conventional sense, so the artist’s bowls would tile sculpture, introduces Higby’s use of the threshold or gateway, begin to take on the contours of the landscapes they evoked. Higby a teasing opening through which light and intimation beckon the served on the board of trustees at the Haystack Mountain School viewer to continue the journey. of Crafts for many years. Time spent on coastal Maine with its Later earthenware sculptures, such as Green River Gorge (7) rocky shores and turbulent ocean was a dissimilar landscape from place the gateway within a more textural and geologically traumatic the Rocky Mountains of his youth. Beginning with pieces such agglomeration of outcroppings and ruptures. Higby still claimed to as Chimerical Bay (4) and becoming increasingly topographical be striving during this period to establish “a zone of quiet coher- and organic in later works, a raw physicality not seen in previous ence.”6 In the presence of these torn and enduring microcosms, works is evident. The light, too, becomes diffused, softer, making the viewer may indeed feel that nature and human emotion have the clean hard edges of the past give way to more robust surfaces. indivisibly fused. By extending that moment of passage, a slight Blue washes over a white ground capture the aqueous movement of delay, only for an instant, provides one that moment of insight. the ocean or hint at a horizon dissolving into a shimmering haze. Material Matters Thresholds In yet another seminal trip that would broaden his mindscape and To many observers, Higby’s move away from traditional pottery prompt the series of porcelain tile sculptures titled Lake Powell forms and subsequent embrace of abstract sculpture may have Memories, the artist visited Jingdezhen in 1994. Higby had never seemed a break of monumental proportion from the rudiments worked in porcelain before and reflected, “What would I make? that first made possible his spatial feats. To the artist himself, the Well, the first thing you should do is forget everything you know cutting and moving of materials, beginning with the last of his about ceramics; just pretend you know nothing.”7 In the end, the sculptural bowls, led him quite naturally to the tile—the “building artist took an approach at once iconoclastic and humble: he cut block” that continues to inform his work today. Inspired in part the clay into six- to eight-inch thick slabs and allowed the intense by his first corporate commission—Intangible Notch (8) for Arrow heat of the kiln-firing to crack and ravage the sculptures. To the International, based in Reading, Pennsylvania—Higby rethought surfaces of later iterations he added a hua—a subtle incised design

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34 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org inspired by a 1993 trip to Lake Powell, whose flooded canyon walls had left an indelible imprint—and then glazed the entire sculpture in classic . The result can be viewed in Lake Powell Memory— Cliffs III (10) and others in this series. These sculptures belie their modest scale and seem to rise like massive rock faces shrouded in mist. The strength of these sculptures’ physical presence coupled with the delicacy of their surface imagery speaks to the power of Higby’s submission to material and his embrace of opportune accident. Even in these closed, contemplative mono- liths laden with historical references, Higby manages to create the illusion of infinite place in the melting, monochrome patterns-within-a-pattern in which East and West meld in sublime defiance. Imbued and fused with porcelain’s rich history, these glaciated sculptures 10 seem to be cleaved from a greater whole, remembered rather than observed directly. The last studio series before embarking on his monumental EarthCloud (11–13), Lake Powell Memories fully integrates the artist’s aesthetic concerns: an alignment with earth and sky, matter, and spirit.

Conclusion If the landscape reveals one certainty, it is the exultant gesture that is the very genesis of creation endowed with humankind’s record of activity. Much in the way that tectonic shifts and seismic waves move through the earth beneath its vast deposits of clay, continuously reshaping the landscape, Higby’s travels around the globe have— sometimes subtly, sometimes dramatically—reshaped his ever-evolving body of work. Throughout his career, the artist has worked in a serial fashion: inlaid plates, 11 covered jars, boxes, bowls, threshold-tiles, tile sculptures, 9 EarthCloud,12,000 hand-cut glazed porcelain tiles, some with added gold luster. and architectural installations. Each series informed the Design includes 5000 square feet connecting two buildings, 2006, 2012. Permanent next engagement of forms and commissions. installation at the Miller Performing Arts Complex, commission for Alfred University, Alfred, New York. 10 Lake Powell Memory—Cliffs III, 19 in. (48 cm) in length, glazed Possessing the defining attributes of a formidable porcelain, 1995. Collection of Marlin and Regina Miller. 11 EarthCloud Sketch/4, 27 artist—exceptional talent and skill—a highly disci- in. (69 cm) in length, glazed porcelain, 2012. Collection of the artist. 10–11 Photos: plined work ethic, and an unbridled enthusiasm for Brian Oglesbee. a world composed of subtle nuances and catastrophic events, Wayne Higby has consistently mined land- Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania, from February 8 to April 11, 2014; and will scape as subject creating work that is unparalleled in travel to the Philadelphia Art Alliance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from May the annals of the American craft movement. Through 15 to August 3, 2014; and the Racine Art Museum in Racine, Wisconsin from constant investigation and reinvention, he has extended September 21, 2014 to January 4, 2015; before traveling to the Memorial Art the definition and potential of both the vessel and Gallery in Rochester, New York later in 2015. architectural site works in the ceramic arts. 1 Lawrence Durrell, Spirit of Place: Letters and Essays on Travel, ed. Alan G. Thomas (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1969), p. 158. 2 Han Shan (Cold Mountain), The Collected Poems of Cold Mountain, trans. Bill Porter (Red Pine) (Port Townsend, This text was excerpted from the book Infinite Place: Washington: Copper Canyon Press, 2000), p. 57. 3 Wayne Higby, “Reflection”, 2012,The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby, p. The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby, 208 pages, 228 173. 4 Mary Drach McInnes, interview with Wayne Higby, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, April 12–14, 2004, p. 53. 5 Wayne Higby, “Innovation: color illustrations. Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart, A Matter of Connections,” The Studio Potter 12, no. 2 (1984), pp. 20–22. 6 Wayne Higby: Thresholds (Buffalo, New York: Germany, 2013. ISBN:978-3-89790-276-3. Burchfield Penney Art Center, 2003), p. 5. 7 Mary Drach McInnes, interview with Wayne Higby, Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America, April 12–14, 2004, The traveling retrospective exhibition of the same name p. 57. 8 Conversation with the artist, October 13, 2012. was on view at the Arizona State University Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art the author Peter Held is Curator of Ceramics at the ASU Art Museum Ceramics Museum in 2013. It was on view at the Reading Public Research Center at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 35 Albert Pfarr Equilibrium by Kathleen Whitney

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36 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Albert Pfarr’s work combines the serious with slapstick, it’s absurd and unlikely, requiring suspension of disbelief. His material choice, ceramic, is astonishingly peculiar; it’s an inherently unlikely material for making monumental sculpture. Regardless of clay’s tendency to fragment, Pfarr’s level of technical ability allows him to take risks, push structural boundaries to extremes and flirt radically with the potential for destruction and breakage. For Pfarr, the choice of ceramic is significant, no other material can give him the visual qualities he needs to develop his ideas and nothing else can retain the evidence of process or show strain so vividly. Still, it’s a strange choice; there is no way around the fact that clay shatters and chips; at large scale, the chances increase exponentially. Pfarr’s work is significantly larger than most ceramic sculpture, often 10 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter, finished pieces may weigh close to 1000 pounds. Each sculpture is time consuming to assemble as it may be comprised of nearly a hundred separate parts; it goes without saying that it’s tricky and cumbersome to transport and painstaking to install. The fact that you can’t see what’s holding it up makes Pfarr’s work humorous. The individual components appear to be impossibly heavy and strained to the breaking point yet also seem to be growing out of and floating above the floor. The work is made from earthenware and is gas fired; it may be glazed, painted, or left bare. The individual, sword-like sections are solid, the appearance of weightlessness is illusory. This impression of growth and lightness is the result of Pfarr’s careful balancing and counter-weighting of the numerous components; he is an intuitive engineer. He uses a peg-and-hole fabrication technique, all parts are interchangeable and reusable. The cores of his pieces are stacked cylinders pierced by carefully spaced holes or slots. Their bottoms are slightly rounded; 2 when completed and given a slight push, they rock slightly but are so finely balanced they don’t fall over. Pfarr inserts his branch, leaf, and blade-like forms into the holes, and, because they are modular, he can rearrange them in new configurations at will. The pieces he places into the holes vary greatly in terms of size and color; some are monochromatic, others have carefully organized layers of color. His structures are accreted like nests or a hives. Unlike these structures, however, his work isn’t about interiority, everything important is on the outside, whatever holds it up is invisible. Because they are fabricated in a modular way, each sculpture has the potential to be another new piece, for the sections to be recycled into new objects in entirely different configurations. The scale and physicality of his work is overwhelming, the forms tower over the viewer and project a monumental presence. The contrast between their wild and chaotic appearance and the clean, architectural space in which they are sited gives these forms an uncanny aspect. To be in a room with them is to be dwarfed and slightly intimidated. They look like a disordered and shaky stack resembling huge, exotic growths; their botanical

1 Albert Pfarr’s “Recombinations,” solo show at the Daum Museum, in Sedalia, Missouri, October 2008–January 2009. 2 Albert Pfarr’s BRWY 5-17-265, 8 ft. (2.4 m) in height, ceramic, 2005. 3 Albert Pfarr’s B-5-43- 326, 8 ft. 6 in. (2.6 m) in height, ceramic, 2003. 3

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 37 4 5

4 Albert Pfarr’s For Undierlige Mursten (strange brick) 5-22-418, 10 ft. (3.1 m) in height, ceramic, 2012. Courtesy of Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, South Korea, 2013. 5 Albert Pfarr’s Y-5-433, 8 ft. 6 in. (2.6 m) in height, ceramic, 2012. Courtesy of Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale, South Korea, 2013. 6 Albert Pfarr’s Repulsion, Attraction, 19 ft. (5.8 m) in height, ceramic, 2011. 7 Albert Pfarr’s P-3-168, 4 ft. (1.2 m) in height, ceramic, 2005.

quality as well as their size makes them simultaneously familiar and tall and asymmetrical. For Undierlige Mursten (strange brick) 5-22- otherworldly. Pfarr creates his work as if he were piecing together a 418 is a stack of unglazed terra cotta with a bulbous protuberant puzzle or creating a code. His goal is not to create a pre-considered center section and brambled top. Y-5-433 is a narrow, floridly yel- form, but to create an object generated by spontaneous decisions. low, multi-branched structure with an exposed terra-cotta center. Pfarr numbers his work and rarely titles it; he doesn’t want a title The pierced cores are more evident in Y-5-433 than in many of to influence the way a viewer perceives it, wanting the interaction his other structures. Both appear to be contorted, self-generating, to be open and associative. He uses a shifting set of visual choices botanical structures. and bases his work on chance groupings and discrete arrangements. Pfarr’s pieces are often unglazed but many of his sculptures These concepts have the quality of a spontaneous, anti-logic that are painted or glazed in vivid colors; some, such as Repulsion, At- expresses irrational relationships within and between groupings of traction and Attraction combine colored with unglazed elements. parts. Although his parts vary wildly and he doesn’t preplan, his Uncharacteristically, both these multi-sectional pieces are mounted complex structures develop out of the cylindrical cores, concealed on the wall. The triangular tiles sprout red, green, yellow, and white anchors that determine order and arrangement. tendrils, the exposed pegging system is a passive backdrop to the Two recent pieces that are typical of his work were displayed twisting vinelike forms that seem to explode from them. Attraction at the 2013 Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale in South is similar but symmetrical, the red tendrils on one side blend with Korea: For Undierlige Mursten (strange brick) 5-22-418 and Y-5- the white tendrils on the other in the middle of the piece. 433. Both are constructed using Pfarr’s peg-and-hole construction Another multi-colored piece, BRWY 5-17-265; is red, white, method with stacked, modular ceramic cores. They are imposingly blue, and yellow painted earthenware. There is no exposed clay,

38 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org even the cores are painted. As is often the case with Pfarr’s work, colors are grouped rather than mixed. Glazed, unglazed or painted, when Pfarr uses color monochro- matically, the individual segments are em- phasized; each seems distinct and individual. P-3-168, with its pinky, fleshy coloration, seems ethereal and delicate while the dark blue coating of B-5-43-326 creates a heavy and almost sinister impression. Pfarr’s 2008–9 exhibition “Recombina- tions” at the Daum Museum of Contem- porary Art in Sedalia, Missouri, offered the opportunity to see his sculptures as a group. The show demonstrated the tremendous vitality and variety of his work, the way the individual sculptures function as a demon- stration of theme and variation. The title of 6 the show referred to Pfarr’s working meth- ods, focusing on his use of interchangeable parts. Pfarr never knows how many pieces he will use in a particular object. By mak- ing multiple units in advance, he generates enough parts to fulfill a potential range of ideas and concepts; the number of sections he uses still surprises him. He has always interchanged parts, making new cores and reconfiguring old ones; one work becomes the gateway to another, he has no preconcep- tions and no fixed end points that lock him into a proscribed track. Pfarr’s work is cumulative, a collection of chance relationships. The way he stacks the cores and organizes the multiple parts be- comes a site for the next gambit and creates a dialog that triggers generation and regenera- tion. Each view of his work is different from the next and there is no way to see the same part the same way; it’s seen kinesthetically, in constant movement. All his pieces share a characteristic play- fulness but also have a challenging nature; a deeper current runs through them. In Pfarr’s hands, play becomes conceptual, philosophical, and aesthetic. The unwieldy, exaggerated, and disproportionate run rampant but these aspects also create an environment that is slightly clumsy, tender, and endearing. Pfarr creates a totally im- mersive experience that is deeply original and intellectually challenging.

the author Kathleen Whitney is a Los Angeles– 7 based writer and sculptor.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 39 at Greenwich House Pottery by Anthony Merino

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40 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 2

1–2 Installation view of “Kirk Mangus and Sebastian Moh,” Jane Hartsook Gallery at Greenwich House Pottery, New York, New York, 2013.

When life throws something at you, do you react ceramics. Mangus presented garish, even bombastic, with emotion or try to reason it out? We all combine pieces. All of his tea bowls are asymmetric, wobbly, the two to some degree, but culturally, this initial and rough. The artist decorated these forms with choice is closely aligned with how much control slashes, smears, and globs of stains. Reflective of the a person has over his or her life. On the simplest work of artists like Peter Voulkos and Philip Gus- level—it is believed that people are controlled ton—Mangus’ work displays a violent, visceral grace, by emotion, but they control their intellect. The like a ballet based on the tumbling action of bingo exhibition “Kirk Mangus and Sebastian Moh” at balls in a hopper. This primitive quality contrasts Jane Hartsook Gallery, Greenwich House Pottery with Moh’s very precise pieces. Uniform, balanced, (www.greenwichhouse.org/gh_pottery), New York, and exact—Moh’s work reads as highly controlled. New York, questions the absoluteness of this con- The pairing of such different artists would seem to ceptual linkage. highlight the contrasts between the two, and yet Mangus and Moh contributed works that epito- because of two distinct qualities of the exhibition, mize two extremes of the expressionist spectrum of the opposite dynamic played out.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 41 3 4

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A narrow range of work by both Mangus and Moh were pre- emotional people lack control and intellectual people are fully in sented in a highly structured display. The exhibition was comprised control. Set next to Moh’s works, the consciousness of Mangus’ almost entirely of small to moderately sized tea bowls. This unifor- surface decorations came through. Mangus created each brush mity resulted in drawing out the similarities of the artists’ works stroke of stain. He left no room for chance. The marks he put on while they remained physically segregated. Mangus’ works were the surface were the same marks that showed on the surface after set up on the east side of the gallery, and Moh’s works were set up the firing. In a sense, the primitive style that Mangus employed on pedestals on the west wall of the gallery. Separating the works to create his images highlighted how much control he asserted. created a more contemplative atmosphere in two ways. First, the Every mark that Mangus made came from two reservoirs: his alternative, having the pieces sitting next to each other, would have considerable talent, and his knowledge of contemporary art and magnified their differences. Second, the calculated placement of ceramics. Ultimately, his drawings and pots looked primitive the works in the display deliberately forced the viewer to see the and automatic because Mangus chose for them to look that way. exhibition as an abstract statement. The forms Moh displayed shared this deliberateness. Highly There is an additional factor outside of the selection and lay- symmetric, the pieces appeared more like they were cut on a lathe out of the exhibition that undermined the idea of the two artists rather than thrown on the potter’s wheel. However, Moh aban- as being in opposition. Each artist’s work contained elements of doned control with his glazes. He exhibited works with three dif- the other. This is where the exhibition subverted the idea that ferent glaze surfaces; each had qualities that the artist could direct,

42 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 3 Sebastian Moh’s tea bowl, 4½ in. (11 cm) in diameter. 4 Sebastian Moh’s yunomi, 3¾ in. (10 cm) in height. 5 Sebastian Moh’s tea bowl, 5 in. (13 cm) in diameter, porcelain, nebula tenmoku glaze, electric fired, 2013.6 Sebastian Moh’s yunomi, 3½ in. (9 cm) in diameter. 7 Kirk Mangus’ tea bowl, 5¼ in. (13 cm) in length, porcelain, various underglazes, fired to cone 6, 2013.8 Kirk Mangus’ bowl, 10½ in. (27 cm) in length, porcelain, various underglazes, fired to cone 6, 2013.

but not completely control. One group of pieces was glazed with a transparent, celadon green glaze. During the firing, the glaze melted and pooled on the cups’ ridges. The pooled area of glaze remained translucent, creating sensuous areas of depth on each cup. Moh also showed pieces finished with a fluid black glaze. The movement of the glaze created elongated gold and blue streaks, and also created a drip line along the bottom of the work. Both of these effects congealed into a restrained elegance that arrested the viewer. The pieces in the last collection were finished with a blue glaze that ran over and 7 around a row of small reddish dots placed on the sides of the cups. Without these ef- fects, Moh’s work would have seemed almost machined. The addition of a slight bit of chaos on such a tight armature bewildered through its resonance. Ultimately, the pieces by each artist ac- cented the other’s work. Moh’s pieces high- lighted the deliberateness of Mangus’ work. Mangus’ pieces forced the viewer to see the ways in which Moh abandoned control in his work. Displaying only a single kind of object, the tea bowl, contributed considerably to this dynamic. The exhibition worked as an abstract and esoteric thesis on how we look at ceramics. On the other hand, it constrained both artists to subjugate their work to this thesis.

Kirk Mangus passed away suddenly on No- vember 24, 2013, just a few weeks before his exhibition with Sebastian Moh opened at Greenwich House Pottery. His creative spirit and generosity will be missed. the author Anthony Merino, a frequent con- tributor to Ceramics Monthly, is located in 8 Adams, Massachusetts.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 43 KRISTEN MORGIN APRIL 10 -MAY 10, 2014 ADAM SHIVERDECKER JULY 10 - AUGUST 7, 2014 KENYON HANSON SEPTEMBER 12 - OCTOBER 10, 2014 THADDEUS ERDAHL OCTOBER 24 - NOVEMBER 22, 2014 CERAMICS CLUB DECEMBER 4 - JANUARY 2, 2015 LEE SOMERS JANUARY 16 - FEBRUARY 13, 2015 JEREMY HATCH APRIL 10 - MAY 8, 2015

2014-15 Exhibition Series jane hartsook gallery, greenwich house pottery CERAMICS 16 jones street, nyc greenwichhousepottery.org NOW This program is supported by the Windgate Charitable Foundation, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the Allan Buitekant Fund for Ceramic Art & Inquiry, the Milton and Sally Avery Arts Foundation, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. 44 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org 2014 ceramics monthy Emerging Artists We get very excited every year when the “Emerging Artists” issue rolls around. It’s not as if we’re only looking for emerging talent at this time of year, but there is a concentration and a more specific purpose to our search in putting together this feature. Part of what makes it exciting is that we put out an open call and ask you to send your work; and what we find when we do this is that folks who perhaps have not gone through the typical cycle of self-promotion, or multiple residencies, or the pursuit of gallery representation, show up on our radar in a way that lets us critically look at their work because they have self-selected as a maker emerging in this field. It takes some guts to do this, because along with sending your work comes the unspoken statement that you feel your work is worthy of notice; it means you have not only worked hard to develop your voice, but that you understand the place that voice could or should occupy in the larger conversation of studio clay. We think you’ll agree that those presented here back up this claim that we have (admittedly, without their permission) imposed upon them with work that goes beyond technical proficiency to personally honest artistic presentation that only each of them could have produced. —Eds. Lauren Mabry Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The surfaces on Lauren Mabry’s cylindrical forms combine well-considered abstraction and landscape references, ren- dered using glaze in a painterly way. Her sensitivity to the gestural placement and movement of glaze, color combina- tions, and the pairing of translucent glazes with opaque or flat glazes and underglazes creates graphically intense and engaging compositions that pull the viewer in and around the forms.

Right: Cracked Cylinder, 28 in. (71 cm) in width, red earthenware, slips, glaze, 2013. Photo by Colin Conces. Below: Composition of Enclosed Cylinders, 38 in. (97 cm) in length, red earthenware, slips, glaze, 2014.

46 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Kwok-Pong (Bobby) Tso Maryville, Missouri

These well-executed lab/technological device forms are not simply a show of technical prowess, but also invoke a user in their presenta- tion. Their purpose is not clearly defined, yet they are accessible and interesting both visually and physically. They are objects that are clearly designed for human use, and in that way successfully bridge the space between sculptural and functional concerns.

Right: Actually Incompatible, 4 ft. (1.2 m) in length, white earthenware, fired to cone 04, sanded surface, wood, plastic, paint, 2013. Bottom right: Ideally Speaking, 20 in. (51 cm) in height, white earthenware, fired to cone 04, sanded surface, wood, plastic, paint, 2013.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 47 YunWook Mun Birmingham, Michigan

The additive construction technique of these works supports their playful and fun color palette and presentation—they’re almost like strange devices or characters made out of building blocks or play dough. At the same time, YunWook Mun’s highly intentional, controlled, and specific choices in proportion, color, and surface lend a good deal of refinement and almost seriousness that simultaneously brings a viewer in and backs them up.

Right: Untitled No.4, 3 in. (8 cm) in height, ceramic. Below: Untitled No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, installation view.

48 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org large as life_ceramics monthly_final2.pdf 1 3/31/2014 1:26:50 PM

Betty Davenport Ford

presents

The American Museum of Ceramic Art is honored to Elaine Katzer present, “Large as Life”, an exhibition that includes the work of three female artists whose sculptural C

M work—figures, torsos, and animals—is unified

Y through their similar approaches to clay. Drawing CM from their individual experiences as working artists, MY teachers, mothers, or simply women, their sculpture CY

CMY and public commissions have explored themes of

K feminism, the human condition, and the environment.

Betty Davenport Ford, Elaine Katzer, and Lisa Reinertson share a fascination of using stylized figurative forms for their investigation of the human Lisa Reinertson condition; their artistic endeavors speak to a spiritual concern for all life and for proclaiming the earth’s bountiful beauty. Ford, Katzer, and Reinertson fashion OPENING RECEPTION compelling sculptures that evoke playfulness, offer Saturday, June 14, 2014 social commentary or reference spiritual truths. 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM

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Ryan LaBar

Chuck Aydlett

Frank Boyden

Ryan Mitchell

Eternity Riding the Beast of Time 22”x17”x13” porcelain

Cary Weigand May 9 - 31 “New Works in Clay” Opening reception and downtown ArtWalk on Friday, May 9. Kelly Garrett Rathbone

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho • 208.765.6006 • www.TheArtSpiritGallery.com

50 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Small Favors IX YEARS MAY 2 through JUNE 1, 2014

Conceived of in 2006, Small Favors grew out The Clay Studio's efforts to offer accessible, high-quality artworks that appeal to art enthusiasts of all ages. Though small in scale, the artworks created for Small Favors are huge in impact. Each work is exhibited in a Plexiglass wall mounted cube.

Images: left to right, top to bottom Steven Gorman, Sin Young Park, Theo Uliano, Ginger Lukas, Shalene Valenzuela, Brenda Tingstrom, Lin Xu, Linda Lopez, Stanton Davis, Peter Morgan, Jimmy Rhea, Lindsey Dezman

www.theclaystudio.org . 137-139 N. 2nd St . Philadelphia . PA . 19106 . 215.925.3453 www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 51 Jessica Brandl West Palm Beach, Florida

Jessica Brandl’s forms echo royal place settings that were historically important ways to com- memorate important events during the European Age of Discovery and later in the era of colonial empires. While the illustrations depict colonial westward expansion in North America, they also portray decay, damage, loss, and neglect or abandonment. The loose, sketchbook style of the illustrations and equally contemporary interpretations of the historical forms coalesce into a powerful, troubling narrative.

Right: Schooner, 13 in. (33 cm) in length, terra cotta, slip, engobe, glaze, 2013. Below: Fire, 11 in. (28 cm) in length, terra cotta, slip, engobe, glaze, 2013.

52 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Cheyenne Chapman Rudolph Gainesville, Florida

Taking a look at nostalgic items like the idealized suburban 1950s lemonade stand, Cheyenne Chapman Rudolph’s forms are designed for a single, highly (and somewhat ab- surdly) specific, function. They are also designed to heighten the drama of the function or use of the object in campy and humorous ways. The humor disarms and entices, especially in her performances with the objects, which introduce both a collaborative engagement with the audience and an examination of idealized gender roles.

Above right: Lemon-Aider performance detail, dressed as a 1960s homemaker, Cheyenne Chapman Rudolph makes lemonade from scratch for passersby using the ceramic implements on the cart. The participant receives the handmade ceramic juice cup for free, 2013. Right: Lemon-Aider, ceramic juicer, stand, water pitcher, 25 juice cups, wood, fabric, metal, laminate, 2013. Below: Personal Pea-Eater, Center-Peas, and Pea-Straining Servers, ceramic pea spoons with center-peas carousel, ceramic funnel, pourers, 2014.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 53 Jonathan Mess Jefferson, Maine

Jonathan Mess’ work is a refreshing approach to the explora- tion of clay as a “rough” material. The pieces achieve a balance between raw, seemingly untouched hunks of clay that evoke other forms—reminiscent of Scholar’s Rocks—and intention- ally created formal compositions that are united by the selective glazing of the surfaces.

Right: Reclaim No.4, 12½ in. (32 cm) in height, various reclaimed ceramic materials, 2013. Below: Reclaim No.2, 10 in. (25 cm) in length, various reclaimed ceramic materials, 2013. Photos: Kate Mess.

54 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 55 LifeLifeLife is isis an anan Art ArtArt BeatriceBeatriceBeatrice Wood WoodWood Center CenterCenter for forfor the thethe Arts ArtsArts | |Ojai, Ojai, CA CA

Exhibitions • Education • Performances ExhibitionsExhibitions • Education• Education • •Performances Performances Photo: Tony Trotta Photo: Tony Photo: Tony Trotta Photo: Tony Photo: Tony Trotta Photo: Tony RichardRichard Flores: Flores: Recent Recent Work Work LaurenLauren Hanson:Hanson: IllustrativeIllustrative Ceramics Richard Flores: Recent Work Lauren Hanson: Illustrative Ceramics MayMay 10 10 – – June June 27, 27, 2014 2014 JulyJuly 55 –– AugustAugust 17,17, 20142014 May 10 – June 27, 2014 July 5 – August 17, 2014 Image:Image: George George Ohr Ohr What? What? Series Series Image:Image: ScheherazadeScheherazade andand herher SisterSister GoGo forfor aa RideRide Image: George Ohr What? Series Image: Scheherazade and her Sister Go for a Ride

Upcoming Ceramics Upcoming Ceramics Workshops Workshops with Debra Fritts, with Debra Fritts, Richard Flores, Richard Flores, Allison Newsome, Allison Newsome, and Nina deCreeft Ward! and Nina deCreeft Ward!

Image: Allison Newsome BeatriceBeatrice Wood: Wood: The The Art Art of of a a Life Life Ongoing Ongoing Image: Allison Newsome Image: Allison Newsome BeatriceImage:Image: Beatrice Beatrice Wood: Wood Wood The Permanent Permanent Art of Collection Collectiona Life Ongoing BambooBamboo withwith SeatedSeated WomanWoman Image: Beatrice Wood Permanent Collection Bamboo with Seated Woman

LearnLearn more more about about thethe BeatriceBeatrice WoodWood CenterCenter foforr thethe Arts,Arts, Learn more about the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, ourour Exhibitions, Exhibitions, EducationalEducational Programming,Programming, andand PerformPerformances: our Exhibitions, EducationalLife is Programming, an Art and Performances:

56 may 2014 www.BeatriceWood.com www.ceramicsmonthly.orgwww.BeatriceWood.com || 805.646.3381805.646.3381 Beatricewww.BeatriceWood.com Wood Center for the | 805.646.3381 Arts | Ojai, CA Life is an Art Exhibitions • Education • Performances Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts | Ojai, CA

Exhibitions • Education • Performances Photo: Tony Trotta Photo: Tony Richard Flores: Recent Work Lauren Hanson: Illustrative Ceramics May 10 – June 27, 2014 July 5 – August 17, 2014 Image: George Ohr What? Series Image: Scheherazade and her Sister Go for a Ride Photo: Tony Trotta Photo: Tony Richard Flores: Recent Work Lauren Hanson: Illustrative Ceramics May 10 – June 27, 2014 July 5 – August 17, 2014 Image: George Ohr What? Series Image: Scheherazade and her SisterUpcoming Go for a Ride Ceramics Workshops

with Debra Fritts, RichardUpcoming Flores, Ceramics AllisonWorkshops Newsome, and Nina deCreeft Ward! with Debra Fritts, Richard Flores, Allison Newsome, Beatrice Wood: The Art of a Life Ongoing Image: Allison Newsome Image: Beatrice Wood Permanent Collection Bamboo with Seated Woman and Nina deCreeft Ward!

Learn more about the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, Beatrice Wood: The Art of a Life Ongoing Image: Allison Newsome Image: Beatrice Woodour PermanentExhibitions, Collection Educational Programming,Bamboo with and Seated Perform Woman ances: www.BeatriceWood.com | 805.646.3381 Learn more about the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts, our Exhibitions, Educational Programming, and Performances: www.BeatriceWood.com | 805.646.3381 www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 57 Northern Clay Center American Pottery presents Festival 2014 September Northern Clay Center invites you to attend its 16th annual 12–14 fundraising benefit and celebration of the art and use of the pot.

• 26 Guest Potters • Opening Night Party and Benefit Sale • Workshops, Lectures, and Artist- led Slide Talks and Discussions • Collector Adventures (day trips to collectors’ homes, curator- led museum tours, and special receptions)

Pre-Festival Workshop Artists: Forrest Lesch-Middelton Ron Meyers Sue Tirrell

Closing Lecture: Beth Lo

Additional Featured Artists Include: Margaret Bohls Andy Brayman Sunshine Cobb Kathy Erteman Dan Finnegan Brett Freund Ernest Gentry Steven Godfrey Perry Haas Mike Helke Bryan Hopkins Gail Kendall Ernest Miller Lindsay Oesterritter Eric Pardue Peter Pincus Kari Smith John Thomas Theo Uliano Alex Watson Betsy Williams gwendolyn yoppolo

northernclaycenter.org

2424 Franklin Avenue East Minneapolis, MN 55406 612.339.8007

58 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org John Chalke, The First Horses Came Late, But Slipped Into The Province Like Ghosts On a Wet Day, multifired/multiglazed, 19x17x2.5" (48x43x6.5cm)

John Chalke rca- Participating Artists: Mindy Andrews The Shape We’re In - Part 2 Ed Bamiling Solo Exhibition Katrina Chaytor and Robin Dupont Bradley Keys Sean Kunz May Cup II - Annual Group Exhibition Jeannie Mah May 1 - 31 Lisa McGrath Sarah Pike 210 Bear Street, Banff, Alberta, Canada Emily Schroeder Willis 403.762.2214 Do-Hee Sung Barbara Tipton www.willockandsaxgallery.com www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 and others59 Thomas Edwards Lincoln, Nebraska

Thomas Edwards’ compositions of whole or segmented forms arranged and embedded in con- crete are formally engaging due to their rhythmic repetition, symmetry, and clean lines. They also evoke a sense of mystery, as parts of the objects are revealed while others are concealed, and of tension, with the embedded objects seeming to be both suspended elegantly in the substrate and locked in, like a fossil.

Right: Five Espresso Cups, 20¼ in. (51 cm) in height, gypsum cement, commercially produced porcelain, 2013. Below: Twelve, 20 in. (51 cm) in height, concrete, wheel-thrown porcelain, 2013.

60 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Bill Wilkey Columbia, Missouri

Bill Wilkey creates soda- and wood-fired work that exploits the firing processes in support of an individual, personal voice while maintain- ing a balance so that the firing effects don’t supersede that voice. This is especially impres- sive when you consider the overt nature of the wood-firing process.

Right: Two-quart lidded juice pitcher, 13 in. (33 cm) in height, wheel-thrown, altered, and handbuilt porcelaneous stoneware, flashing slips, glazes, soda fired to a hot cone 10, 2013. Below: Diner mugs, 4 in. (10 cm) in height, wheel- thrown and altered porcelaneous stoneware, flashing slips, glazes, wood fired in an Anagama for 30 hours to cone 12, 2013.

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 61 Eric Knoche Asheville, North Carolina

Eric Knoche’s simplified cloud forms are full of engaging contrasts. They look almost like illustrations, icons, or diagrams of idealized outlines of clouds. With the centers cut out, allowing the eye to move into and around the form, they reference airiness, but the material acts as a counterweight. The weathered surface on each that results from wood firing adds both a sense of gravity and of exposure to the elements.

Right: Heavy Cloud No. 5, 22 in. (56 cm) in height, wood-fired stoneware, slips, glazes, 2013. Below: Heavy Cloud No. 3, 33 in. (83 cm) in length, wood-fired stoneware, slip, 2013.

62 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org At Sixes & Sevens

works by Derek reeverts

view the exhibit at MAY Charlie Cummings Gallery 3–31 visit claylink.com

“Tarred and feathered” by Derek Reeverts

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 63 WHITAKER GALLERY AT HOOD COLLEGE

2014 CERAMIC ARTS EXHIBITIONS

DENISE JOYAL BOBBIE McMILLAN

KRISTIN MÜLLER SUSAN ALTER-HUMPHREY

APRIL 4-18 Kristin Müller | Hikidashi Tea Bowls: A Selection of Fifty Wood Fired Winter Tea Bowls APRIL 25-MAY 18 Denise Joyal | Capturing Light JULY 3-20 Bobbie McMillan | Me, Myself and I and Maybe You AUGUST 8-23 Susan Alter-Humphrey | Finding Sanctuary through Flight

 JUNE 12-15 Contemporary Raku Symposium Brett Thomas, Joyce Michaud, Phil Berneburg, Janice Chassier The symposium includes exhibitions of contemporary ceramic art work, lectures on raku and Obvara art, demonstrations Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts, and Graduate of Raku and Obvara firings, and opportunities to fire your Certificate in Ceramic Arts pottery in the Hood College and mobile raku kilns. The Hood College Ceramic Arts program offers advanced Visit www.hood.edu/ceramics for a studio experiences and grounding in the science and technology of the ceramic arts to provide students complete schedule. with the skill and knowledge needed to develop personal aesthetic expression.

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL AT HOOD COLLEGE • CERAMIC ARTS PROGRAM • 401 ROSEMONT AVE., FREDERICK, MD • 301-696-3456 • WWW.HOOD.EDU/CERAMICS 64 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 65 66 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org mata ortiz_ceramics monthly2.pdf 1 4/1/2014 9:59:34 AM

Thursday, May 29, 2014 through Sunday, June 1, 2014

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Diego Valles Saturday, May 31, 2014 and Sunday, June 1, 2014

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 67 Miles Spadone Portland, Maine

Miles Spadone’s pieces are not only wonderful studies in balance, proportion, activation of negative space, and tension of forms moving in opposition, but the reductive forms manage to reference bone, taut skin or fabric, and stone simultaneously. In addition to working well as sculptural forms, the pieces are also interesting to contemplate from a functional perspective.

Right: Mytosis, 16½ in. (42 cm) in height, lacquer, tinted shellac, ceramic. Below: Untitled, 24 in. (61 cm) in length, lacquer, tinted shellac, ceramic.

68 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Caterina Roma Barcelona, Spain

The local clay that Caterina Roma uses to make her functional pieces pairs just the right amount of expres- sive surface and texture with her minimalist forms. The clean, strong forms are balanced with an appro- priately active surface that does not overwhelm. Overall, the work is a wonderful example of material and formal exploration combined with a strong sense of restraint.

Right: Beer stein, 5½ in. (14 cm) in height, self-collected clay, fired to 2372°F (1300°C), brass handle. Below: La Fille Rompue, 6½ in. (17 cm) in height, self- collected clay, fired to 2372°F (1300°C).

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 69 70 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 71 Dawn Dishaw Easthampton, Massachusetts

Pairing quiet forms with bold, hand-drawn patterns that pull from a variety of sources, Dawn Dishaw creates a sense of identity in and engagement with her pieces while keeping the utility of the forms paramount. While the patterns are strong, Dishaw carefully matches them to the curves of her vessel forms so that they accentuate edges and volumes in playful ways.

Right: Vase with navy, red, and purple arch pattern, 5¼ in. (13 cm) in height, cone 10 stoneware, , glaze. Below: Small bowls with various arch patterns, 4¾ in. (12 cm) in length, cone 10 white stoneware, underglaze, glaze.

72 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Brett Kern Elkins, West Virginia

Using extremely clean technique and Pop-culture imagery, Brett Kern’s work takes the idea that clay can be anything and draws lines between material, subject, and process that are at once humorous and thoughtful. An inflated clay dinosaur and a candy- colored slip-cast wood pile are both presented in such manner as to remove process and material at least from the first impression of the work. The narrative is open, and could be anything from a nostalgic look back at childhood memories to a wry reminder of the sources of fossil and organic fuels.

Right: Stegosaurus, 25 in. (64 cm) in length, slip-cast, low-fire white clay, cone 06 commercial glazes, gold luster, 2013. Below: Local Color, 44 in. (1 m) in height, slip-cast, low-fire white clay, cone 06 commercial glazes, gold luster, 2011. Kevin Rohde Baltimore, Maryland

It’s difficult to make naturalistic figurative work that resides between realism and psychological narrative without getting heavy handed and overweighted with either technique or melodrama. Kevin Rohde’s formal execution and narrative content strike a balance with a deliberate openness so that the universal relatability of these figures is not overpowered. They remain accessible and inviting—even if their subject matter is not neces- sarily friendly.

Right: Lost and Found, 19 in. (48 cm) in height, earthenware, interior latex, acrylic, 2012. Below: Titled, 37½ in. (95 cm) in height, earthenware, acrylic, steel rod, latex paint, 2011.

74 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org BRAnAn meRceR SeBASTIAn mOH lORA RUST

Ken BASKIn JUDITH DUFF

s t u d i o & g a l l e r y REPRESENTING LOCAL AND NATIONAL ARTISTS INCLUDING:

Amy SAnDeRS, AnneTTe GATeS, BeRTIce mcPHeRSOn, BRAnAn meRceR, SUSIe BOWmAn cHRIS GReenmAn, cHRIS GRyDeR, cHRIS GUSTIn, cHRIS Kelly, cHUcK SOlBeRG, eSTellA FRAnSBeRGen, FAITH KAISeR, FOnG cHOO, JAmAS BROOKe, JennIFeR Allen, JIm GOTTUSO, JUDITH DUFF, KenneTH BASKIn, lAURen SmITH, lISA WATSOn, lORA RUST,lORI PHIllIPS, lynneTTe HeSSeR, mARIA DOnDeRO, mARK KnOTT, mARy lOUISe cARTeR, mATT RePSHeR, mATT ScHIemAnn, ROn meyeRS, ROnAn PeTeRSOn, ScOTT BenneTT, ScOTT meyeR, SeBASTIAn mOH, STeve lOUcKS, SUSIe BOWmAn, ZAcK SIeRKe  CALL FOR ENTRIES  Single Stem: “A VASe for one Bud” dec. 1 - JAn. 1 ◆ Judge: Scott Bennett SUBmISSIOn DeADlIne: OcT. 1, 2014

ZAcK SIeRKe mARy lOUISe cARTeR lORI PHIllIPS

visit www.thekilnstudio.com for information about our weekly adult classes & guest artist workshops 251-517-5460 • THEKILNSTUDIO.COM • 60 N.SECTION STREET, FAIRHOPE, AL www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 75

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 77 techno file

bloating by Dave Finkelnburg There are three potential causes of bloating: over firing, “dirty” firing (reducing atmosphere in the early stages of firing), and poor clay mixing. Their cures are very different. Fortunately, they are easy to tell apart. Fault: Clay Mixing Defining the Terms When firing is clean and fully oxidizing until organics and Bloating: Formation, in a clay body during firing, of a sulfur are burned off, but bloating is observed, then the gas bubble large enough to distort the surface shape fault is not with the firing, but rather with inconsistencies in of the fired ceramic. In severe cases the gas bubble will burst through to the surface of the fired work. 1967°F (1075°C) the clay body mixing. The fault is that flux in the clay body is concentrated in clusters, rather than being distributed Oxidizing Atmosphere: An excess of oxygen from air uniformly throughout the body. in a kiln firing. As any clay body approaches peak firing temperature, two Reducing Atmosphere: A shortage of oxygen from air features are always present in the work. There is a liquid in a kiln firing. glass phase formed from flux elements in the body melting Overfiring: Firing a ceramic body so hot that it begins 2012°F (1100°C) the glass former present. There are also small bubbles of to distort from melting. kiln gas left over as the body shrinks and becomes dense from the firing. Fault: Over Firing The glass phase, being a liquid, has almost no strength. At Overfiring is the easiest cause of bloating to recognize. Keep this point in the firing, the strength to keep the ceramic shape in mind that all ceramic bodies are intended to be formed at is supplied by the clay, quartz, and other more refractory room temperature and then fired to durability while retaining 2057°F (1125°C) materials in the body. that shape. However, if the firing is too hot, known as overfiring, The gas bubbles naturally exert force to expand because the shape will be lost as the body just starts to melt. the temperature everywhere in the kiln and ware is rising. The bubbles expand if they are not confined by the clay body. Fault: Dirty Firing In a well-mixed clay body, the liquid-glass phase is Clays usually contain some organic materials which will burn in the present in minute droplets too small to see with the naked presence of enough heat and oxygen. Some clays contain small to eye. However, in the case of a poorly mixed body, or one 2102°F (1150°C) significant amounts of tiny crystals of pyrite, an iron sulfide. The contaminated with lumps of flux mineral, the glass phase sulfur in pyrite burns readily at moderate kiln temperatures and forms pools just large enough that the clay-body structure in a properly fired kiln has burned off by about 1300°F (700°C). is susceptible to being ruptured by expanding gas bubbles. However, if the kiln is starved for air (unlikely in a well-vented That’s what happens when a clay body bloats due to electric kiln or a carefully tended fuel-fired kiln) the sulfur, as poor mixing of its ingredients. An excessively large glass well as organic materials, can still be present. If oxygen gets pool weakens the clay and expanding gas forms a bubble into the kiln later in the firing, when the clay body is soft due 2147°F (1175°C) at the site. to nearing its peak firing temperature, large volumes of gas will Note that while the body is overfired locally, the body be generated by the combustion of the sulfur and organics and does not look overfired in general. Certainly, bloats would that will cause gas bloating in the ware. not appear if the ware had been fired to a lower peak temperature, but firing temperature alone is not the root Right: An example of a bloated cone 04 terra-cotta body. The body begins bloating by 2102°F (1150°C) and also becomes cause of bloating. The firing simply reveals the poorly mixed glassy and overfired at that temperature. Photos: Matt Katz. 2192°F (1200°C) body’s susceptibility to this fault.

Troubleshooting the Basics Such clumps can easily be prevented by simply mixing the water for the clay body recipe with 5 to 10% of the clay to be used, and then mixing It is critical that the first firing of all ceramic work be done in a fully oxidizing the feldspar into that dilute clay slurry. This process, best done with a atmosphere until all organics and sulfur compounds are burned off. This high-speed mixer, coats the feldspar particles with just enough clay to is especially critical with work that is to be fired to full density—functional prevent feldspar clumping. work intended to be impervious to water or other liquids. A good rule of thumb is, regardless of the heat source of the kiln, fire It is also possible for crystals of flux oxides to precipitate from clay slip such work in a fully oxidizing atmosphere up to ~1500°F (~816°C). found in recycled clay (crystals formed from soluble salts in studio water Organics and sulfur will have burned cleanly off by that point and will or dissolved from the body itself), and for those crystals to cause bloats. not cause problems later in the firing. Where ware is formed from extensively recycled clay, but not from new When bloating due to poor clay mixing occurs, the culprit is almost clay of the same recipe, the safest remedy is to throw out the reclaim. always feldspar in the clay body recipe. Feldspar, when handled dry, tends Crystals can be removed by slurrying and screening, but the result will to form small clumps due to electrostatic attraction. Feldspar clumps, if be a body of somewhat altered, and unknown, chemical composition. blended into the body, cause bloats. Clay is just not valuable enough to risk forming effort on a suspect body.

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 79 tips and tools

sanding bow by John Dadmun Let’s face it, sometimes you just have to sand your greenware. Here’s a sanding tool you can make and alter in many ways to fit almost every situation you may have.

While wet sponging is best to smooth a surface as it creates little to no dust, it doesn’t always solve your surface issues. When working Materials with paper clay for instance, using a wet sponge to smooth out dry greenware can result in lumpy, undesirable surface textures due to • Wood scraps the paper pulp/fibers in the clay. With a grogged clay, a wet sponge • 3M drywall/plaster/wallboard sanding will bring all of the large particles to the surface, leaving you with screen, 220 grit a rough lip or rim. • Waterproof carpenter’s wood glue A scrap of sanding screen (typically used to smooth joint compound • Masking tape or Gorilla tape in construction), or foam sanding block, is often the go-to tool • Utility scissors when the sanding need arises. Sanding blocks, however, obscure • Saw—coping saw, scroll saw, or jig saw one’s view of the work, fill with clay fast, and offer little in terms will work of tactile feedback. We can do a bit better, in terms of utility and predictability, by constructing a bow sander from sanding screen and some scraps of wood. With a sanding screen, you can see right settles onto surfaces everywhere, only to be kicked up eventually through the screen, unobstructed by your hand, and you can sand and breathed in again. Inhaled dust can aggravate allergies, cause large curved surfaces with uniformity. difficulty in breathing, and eventually if inhaled excessively for many years, may lead to silicosis. Therefore, when sanding dry clay, Consider Safety always wear a professionally-fitted dust mask, work in adequate Dry sanding is often a method many potters shy away from because ventilation or outdoors, and use a wet sponge and a wet mop to the dust released into the air can be harmful to breathe in and clean up the dust.

1 2 3 4

5 6 7

1 Use scraps of wood to make the handle of the bow sander. 2 Tape an overlapping strip of sanding screen to each end of the bow sander. 3 Place a drop of glue on each end to secure the sanding screen to the wood handle. 4 Several shapes and sizes of bow sanders. 5 Tape the middle of the sanding screen down so that the screen does not dry too tight and has some give when in use. 6–7 The bow sander in use.

80 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Building a Sanding Bow sanding screen, but without any tape on it. The sanding screen should give slightly when pressed to the surface, affording great Cut out a bow-shaped scrap of wood approximately 5×5¾ inches sanding control. Tape it such that a bit of tension exists between with each end cut at about the same plane (1). For each bow, cut the two tips (5). a sanding screen to fit across the two ends. Make it about the Remove the tape on the glued ends, and cut off the extra inch same width as the bow frame and extending at least an inch or so or so of sanding screen that was taped over earlier. over the far edge of each tip. You can vary the width of your strips depending on the project. Lay the sanding screen across the two ends of your bow and tape Using the Sanding Bow around that last inch or so of overlap, fixing the screen around the To sand inside a closed area, remove the tape from one end of the first inch of each tip (2). You want the screen to be taut but not bow, slide the screen through the piece, then re-secure the tape. too tight. For cylinders, leave a little extra slack in the sanding screen strip. Spread some glue across the top of each of the bow tips where Use the thin edge of the tool to finish crevices (6–7). Remember the sanding screen passes over the top of each tip (3–4). The glue to rinse out your bow sander occasionally as a full screen doesn’t should seep through the screen and into the wood. Let this dry, work as well. then hit it with a second layer, again letting that dry. If you work Send your tip and tool ideas, along with plenty of images, to with enclosed forms (like handles on mugs), leave one side taped [email protected]. If we use your idea, you’ll receive a but not glued. You are leaving the face of the tip covered by the complimentary one-year subscription to CM!

Olympic FL12E Inside dimensions 24” x 24” x 36”, 12 cu. ft., For less than $6,000, fires to 2350°F – Cone 10, 12 key you could be firing a 12 cubic foot, controller with cone fire & ramp hold cone 10 gas or electric kiln. programming, 240-208 volt, single phase. $5710 More value for your dollar, more bang for your buck!

Olympic DD9 with Vent Hood* – Inside dimensions 30” x 25” x 25”, inside volume 15 cu. ft., setting area 23” x Contact an Olympic Kilns Distributor to 23” x 30”, 9.2 cu. purchase an Olympic Gas or Electric Kiln ft., fires to 2350°F – Cone 10, propane www.greatkilns.com or natural gas Phone 800.241.4400 or 770.967.4009 $5870 Fax 770.967.1196 * Pictured with optional stainless steel vent hood

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 81 recipes high-fire glazes Bill Wilkey and Caterina Roma, two of our 2014 Emerging Artists, share their recipes for high-fire slips and glazes. To see more from each of them, check out pages 61 and 69.

Amber Celadon Lilly Brewer Flashing Slip Bill Wilkey’s Recipes Cone 10–11 Cone 10–11 Gerstley Borate ...... 2.2 % Nepheline Syenite ...... 50 % Magnesium Carbonate. . . . . 2.9 Grolleg...... 50 Whiting ...... 7.8 100 % Wollastonite...... 13.6 Add: ...... 2 % Custer Feldspar ...... 21.4 Titanium Dioxide...... 4 % Alberta Slip ...... 35.0 #6 Tile Kaolin...... 3.5 This slip has a lot of different faces. With Silica ...... 13.6 lots of soda and heavy reduction, the titani- 100.0 % um can trap carbon, giving darker blushes. It even looks good when lightly reduced Add: Yellow Ochre...... 8.7 % yielding warm tans, oranges, and yellows. Bentonite...... 2.0 % Apply it thin so it doesn’t completely mask surface detail. This glaze looks good in gas reduction, wood, and soda kilns and works well as a liner glaze. When cooled slowly, it can form micro crystals where thicker, which helps Bill Wilkey’s sugar jar (detail), wheel- add more variation to surface textures. It thrown, altered, and handbuilt porcelaneous tends to bleach out and turn yellow where stoneware, Lily Brewer flashing slip, Amber the soda is concentrated. There is a happy Celadon glaze, soda fired to a hot cone 10. medium thickness where it doesn’t run too much even at a soft cone 11. Amber Celadon is adapted from John Britt’s book, High Fire Glazes.

HAA2 Oatmeal white Caterina Roma’s Recipes Cone 9–10 Cone 10 Dolomite...... 20 % Bone Ash...... 2.0 % Whiting...... 7 Dolomite...... 21.7 Potash Feldspar ...... 48 Whiting...... 2.1 ...... 10 Potash feldspar ...... 49.5 China Clay...... 10 Kaolin ...... 24.7 Silica ...... 5 100.0 % 100 % Add: Tin Oxide...... 3.0 % This opaque white matte glaze verges on being grayish blue. It breaks black on This glaze is a bit shinier than HAA2. It can ridges, and is great to accentuate texture be fired over a broader temperature range, and facets. but it can be a bit runny if fired over cone 10. It breaks brown on edges and gives It’s sensitive to thickness and temperature: better results when thin. I use it for dipping completely matte when fired at cone 9, in a thin mixture but, with care, it can be and has a more satin finish at cone 10, with also brushed on. a light crackle surface. Thickness gives a Caterina Roma’s beer stein (detail), self- whiter look and tends to go black if applied The interaction with the impurities found collected clay, HAA2 glaze and Oatmeal too thin. I use a thick mixture, brush it on, in the clay I collect gives a rough finish. White glaze, fired to 2372°F (1300°C). and fire it in the hot spots of my electric kiln at cone 9–10. When I want a white satin glaze, I use a combination of the HAA2 and Oatmeal I discovered this glaze in the book, Oriental White glazes in different coats, which Glazes, by Michael Bailey. It is recommend- results in a deep and interesting surface. ed for once-firing, but I’ve always used it on This glaze is also useful when refiring with bisqued pieces. HAA2, to lower the melting temperature.

82 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Don’t miss our e-dition at www.ceramicsmonthly.org

www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 83 recipes low- to mid-range Lauren Mabry and YunWook Mun, two of our 2014 Emerging Artists, share their recipes for a colored casting slip and a low-fire slip and glaze. To see more from each of them, check out pages 46 and 48.

Lauren Mabry’s Low-Fire Glaze and Slip Recipes

C2 Glaze Base Lauren Mabry Low-Fire Slip Cone 04–03 Cone 04–03 Ferro Frit 3124...... 80 % Talc ...... 6.5 % Petalite...... 5 Ferro Frit 3124 ...... 6.5 Spodumene...... 5 Ball clay ...... 31.0 EPK Kaolin...... 10 EPK Kaolin...... 31.0 100 % Silica ...... 25.0 Add: Bentonite...... 2 % 100.0 % For colors add: Add Mason, Spectrum, or Degussa stains. 5–15 % White Zircopax...... 7 .0% Lauren Mabry’s Pipe Form, red earthenware, Metallic Coloring Oxides . . . . . 1–2 % Colors slips, glazes, 2014. Mason, Spectrum, or Degussa stains 5–15 % I layer colored slips and underglazes prior to This is a basic clear glaze, but it also works nicely the bisque firing. I mainly brush everything, with colors (either stains or oxides). It doesn’t run Metallic Coloring Oxides . . . . . 1–2.0% and sometimes incorporate monoprint transfer very much, and crazes only when applied very techniques to enhance the composition. thick. It brushes with a good flow, and melts This is a good slip for low fire. I added frit to help the slip mature at a lower temperature. It’s best into a nice even layer in the firing. Commercial underglazes contrast the runny when applied on wet-to-leather hard clay. I like glazes that I often use on top. Some favorites are to brush it on thick, at a yogurt-like consistency Amaco Velvet (Radiant Red), Duncan EZ Stroke for opaque coverage. (Neon Chartreuse), and Amaco LUG (Black).

YunWook Mun’s Casting Slip Recipe Casting Slip Cone 6–10 Custer Feldspar ...... 2.5 lbs. OM4 Ball Clay ...... 1.0 lb. Grolleg...... 3.0 lbs. EPK Kaolin ...... 1.0 lb Silica (325 Mesh)...... 2.5 lbs. 10.0 lbs. Add: Water...... 4.0 lbs. Darvan #7...... 20.0 g Sodium Silicate ...... 20.0 g For Colors Add Mason Stains: Red: MS #6021 Red...... 20.0 % Orange: MS # 6028 Orange. . . . 15.0 % Blue: MS # 6310 Blue Wedgewood. . 15.0 % Sky Blue: MS #6391 Deep Turquoise. . 15.0 % Pink: MS #6020 Bubble Gum Pink. 15.0 % Gray:MS #6500 Sage Grey. . . . 13.0 % Yellow: MS #6450 Praseodymium . 20.0 % Black: MS #6600 Black...... 15.0 % Lavender: MS #6333 Lavender. . . 15.0 % Bermuda: MS #6242 Bermuda. . . 15.0 % I mix the water and the Darvan then add the dry ingredients. I add the stain last. It takes 5–10 minutes to cast depending on object’s size and the dryness of the mold. YunWook Mun Untitled No.4, 3 in. (8 This slip can be fired to cone 10 but after cm) in height, ceramic. cone 6, the color is less intense.

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 87 ceramic artsbookstore Cone5–6 Glazes materials &recipes Sign up for the Ceramic READING, PA Arts Daily newsletter, 2014 SUMMER and watch FREE clay WORKSHOPS: videos online at: JOHN GILL: ceramicartsdaily.org HAND-BUILT VESSELS JERRY BENNETT: PAPER CLAY Sign up today! GRATIA BROWN: THE REPURPOSED CERAMIC OBJECT Don’t miss an issue! DOUG PELTZMAN: In this book, you’ll discover an easy FORM + SURFACE Renew your way to test glazes, tips for glazing, and insights into key glaze materials. 201 Washington St, Reading, PA 19601 subscription online at Softcover • 144 Pages • $29.95 www.goggleworks.org ceramicsmonthly.org ceramicartsdaily.org/bookstore

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 89 ceramic arts bookstore THE NEW CERAMICS

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For any potter beginning to experiment with fired colour, New texture and decoration in their work, Developing Glazes is an essential reference, revealing workable, exciting methods for achieving the glaze results you want.

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Greg Daly is an Australian ceramic artist of international standing, with works held in over 70 galleries and Greg Daly museums worldwide, as well as 75 solo exhibitions to his name. He is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics in Geneva and a lecturer for the Ceramics Workshop at the Australian National University in Canberra. An acclaimed teacher, he has presented over 150 ceramics workshops and lectures around the world, CeramiCS and has previously written two books, Glazes and Glazing Techniques and Lustre, both published by Bloomsbury. developing glazes Greg Daly www.ceramicartsdaily.org

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 91 In this installment of the Ceramic Arts Daily Presents Video Series of handbuilding with earthenware. Determin weak, Lisa explains how this beautiful forgiving clay body is e counterparts when it is fired beyond the traditionaled to change Cone the04. mythIn , potter that Lisaearthenware Naples shares is punky her and love of good slab rolling, Lisa guides youpresents through her demonstrates how to add interest to handbuil very bit as strong as its higher-firedDecorating Slip and Handbuilding Functional: to Flat custom shapes. In the decorating portion of the video, Lisa straightforward addition soft-slab to building covering techniques. the mechanics She ceramic arts and “wet” slip brushing techniques, explainingt forms how theyby adding can add texture both andbeau cutting darts to create In addition, she explains how to effectively use animal imagery to tel daily gives a thorough explanation of her “dry” presents 2-DISC SET! Jennifer Poellot Harnetty tiful texture and color. Editor, CeramicArtsDaily.org l stories on functional objects. Flat toProgram Manager,Functional Ceramic Arts Daily Presents Video Series Handbuilding & Slip Decorating Flat to Functional with Lisa Naples Handbuilding & In this installment of the Ceramic Arts Daily Presents Video Slip Decorating Series, potter Lisa Naples shares her love of handbuilding Lisa Naples resides in Doylestown, Penn- with

with earthenware. Determined to change the myth that earth-

sylvania, where she makes pottery and Naples Lisa with narrative sculpture from her barn studio. enware is punkyIn 1988, and she earnedweak, her MFA Lisa in ceram explains- how this beautiful ics from the Nova Scotia College of Art Lisa forgiving clay bodyand Design isin Halifax, every Nova Scotia.bit asShe strong as its higher-fired has given lectures and workshops at Penland School of C counterparts whenCrafts, and it’s other fired noted ceramic beyond workshop centers. the He traditional cone 04. naples Michener Art Museum, the Washington Craft Show, Philad other juried shows around the United States. In 2005, Lis raft, Arrowmont School of Arts and Award at Australian National University in Canberra, Ausr work has been exhibited at the James A. In addition to visitcovering www.lisanaples.com the. mechanics of goodelphia Museum slab of Art Craftrolling, Shows, and

a was awarded an NCECA Residency library video daily arts ceramic Lisa guides you through her straightforwardtralia. soft-slab To learn more buildingabout Lisa, please techniques. She demonstrates how to add interest to handbuilt forms by adding texture and cuttingTotal Running darts Time: Approximately to create 2 hours, 20custom minutes shapes. In the decorating portionceramic of the artsvideo, Lisa gives a thorough explanation of her “dry” and “wet” slip brushing Copyright 2014 The American Ceramic Societydail techniques, explaining how they can add both beautifuly.org tex- ture and color. In addition, she explains how to effectively use g animal imagery to tell stories on functional objects. ceramic arts daily videoNEW library 2 Discs • 2 Hours 20 Minutes • $49.95 ceramicartsdaily.org/bookstore ✹

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92 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org call for entries deadlines for exhibitions, fairs, and festivals

international $30 for three entries. Juror: Richard Notkin. CA 95207; [email protected]; tea service forms. Juried from digital. exhibitions Contact Dale Marhanka, Workhouse Arts www.deltacollege.edu/div/finearts/ Fee: $25 for 3 entries. Contact Monica Center Ceramics Program, 9504 Work- dept/dca/gallery/Call_for_Entries.html; Leap, Studio 550 Community Art Center, May 10 entry deadline house Way Bldg. 8, Lorton, VA 22079; 209-954-5507. 550 Elm St., Manchester, NH 03101; Illinois, Springfield “Shapes of [email protected]; June 23 entry deadline [email protected]; www.550arts.com; Influence/Contemporary Ceramics” www.workhousearts.org; 703-584-2982. Michigan, Ypsilanti “The Art of High 603-232-5597. (July 18–September 6) open to ce- May 9 entry deadline ramic work including floor, wall, and Chair Fine Dining” (September 2–29) Missouri, City “KC Clay regional exhibitions non-traditional forms of various sizes. open to all media by US and Canadian art- Guild Teabowl National 2014” (Au- May 16 entry deadline Juried from digital. Fee: $30 for up to ists. Juried from digital. Fee: $35 for one gust 29–September 19) open to non- North Carolina, Southport “Sum- 3 entries. Juror: Harris Deller. Contact entry. Juror: Marie Woo. Contact Dr. Mar- traditional and traditional teabowls mer Regional Show” (June 2–June Betsy Dollar, Springfield Art Asso- garet Carney, The Dinnerware Museum, made of clay not exceeding 9 inches 21) open to pottery, paintings, and ciation, 700 N. 4th St., Springfield, IL 520 N. Main St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104; in any direction and made within the sculpture. Juried from actual work. 62702; [email protected]; [email protected]; last two years. Juried from digital. Fee: Fee: $30 for up to two entries. Jurors: www.springfieldart.org; 217-523-2631. www.dinnerwaremuseum.org; 607- $30. Jurors: Delores Fortuna and Bill 382-1415. Judi Betts and Brenda McMahon. Con- June 10 entry deadline Farrell. Contact Susan Speck, KC Clay tact Carol Kidd, Associated Artists of June 30 entry deadline Nevada, Las Vegas “Serve it Up 2014” Guild, 200 W 74th St, Kansas City, Southport, 130 E. West St., Southport, New York, Brooklyn “Art in Clay II: (July 1–August 30) open to plates, platters, MO 64114; [email protected]; NC 28461; [email protected]; Figuratively Speaking” (September 27– bowls, casseroles, and other functional www.kcclayguild.org; 913-384-1718. www.FranklinSquareGallery.com; 910- October 26) open to figurative ceramic . Juried from digital. Fee: $10 May 31 entry deadline 457-5450. per entry. Juror: Peter Jakubowski. Con- and mixed media work where clay is the Nebraska, Lincoln “Nebraska Na- tact Peter Jakubowski, Clay Arts Vegas, primary medium. Juried from digital. Fee: fairs and festivals tional Collegiate Juried Art Exhibition” 1511 S. Main St., Las Vegas, NV 89104; $55 for five entries; $5 for each additional (September 5–25) open to ceramic work May 31 entry deadline [email protected]; entry. Juror: Lilly Wei. Contact Susan by undergraduate students. Juried from Maryland, Gaithersburg “Sugarloaf clayartsvegas.com/html/prospectus.html; Handwerker, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists digital. Fee: $10. Juror: Bobby Silverman. Crafts Festival” (weekends during Octo- 702-375-4147. Coalition, 499 Van Brunt St., Brooklyn, ber 17–November 23) Juried from slides Contact Margaret Bohls, University of NY 11231; [email protected]; 917- June 14 entry deadline or digital. Fee: $20 per season. Contact Nebraska, Lincoln, 120 Richards Hall, 656-8793; www.bwac.org. New Mexico, Silver City “Private Dept. of Art and Art History, Lincoln, Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, 19807 Executive July 15 entry deadline ProJECT” (August 2–3) open to perma- NE 68506; [email protected]; arts.unl. Park Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; Virginia, Lynchburg “The Battle of nent clay or mosaic installations. Juried edu/art/exhibitions/nebraska-national- [email protected]; 301-990- the Bowls: The National Juried Bowl from digital. Fee: $30 for 1 entry; $35 collegiate-juried-art-exhibition; 612- 1400; www.sugarloafcrafts.com. Exhibition” (October 3–27) open to for 2 entries; $40 for 3 entries. Jurors: 414-6067. May 31 entry deadline interpretations of the bowl. Juried from Claude W. Smith III, Kathryn Allen, Marcia June 5 entry deadline Maryland, Timonium “Sugarloaf Smith. Contact Jessie Thetford, Silver slides or digital. Fee: $30 for three New Hampshire, Manchester “Take Crafts Festival” (October 10–12) Juried City Clay Festival, PO Box 2383, Silver entries. Contact David Emmert, ACHS Another Look.” (July 3–August 19) from slides or digital. Fee: $20 per season. City, NM 88061; [email protected]; ART, 139 Lancer Ln., Amherst, VA trompe l’oeil ceramics made to look like Contact Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, 19807 www.clayfestival.com; 575-538-5560. 24521; [email protected]; Executive Park Circle, Germantown, MD anything but clay. Juried from digital. Fee: www.thebattleofthebowls.com; 434- June 30 entry deadline 20874; [email protected]; 301- $25 for three entries, $10 each additional. 946-2898. Belgium, Andenne “BCA 2015” entry. Contact Monica Leap, Studio 550 990-1400; www.sugarloafcrafts.com. (May 24–June 7, 2015). Contact Community Art Center, 550 Elm St., Man- August 1 entry deadline May 31 entry deadline Omar Bouchahrouf, Cultural Center chester, NH 03101; [email protected]; Maryland, Baltimore “Third Annual New Jersey, Somerset “Sugarloaf of Andenne, Rue Malevé 5, Andenne, www.550arts.com/programs/artist- Solo Cup Benefit Exhibition” (August Crafts Festival in Somerset” (October Namur 5300 Belgium; 003285843640; residency; 603-232-5597. 17–September 27) open to ceramic cups. 24–26) Juried from slides or digital. Juried from actual work. No fee. Contact [email protected]; June 6 entry deadline Fee: $20 per season. Contact Sugar- www.biennaledelaceramique.be. Mary Cloonan, Baltimore Clayworks, Maryland, Baltimore “Looking at loaf Craft Festivals, 19807 Executive September 15 entry deadline 5707 Smith Ave., Baltimore, MD 21209; Park Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; Ourselves: A Survey of Contemporary [email protected]; Nevada, Las Vegas “Bump in the [email protected]; 301-990- Figurative Ceramic Sculpture” (Octo- www.baltimoreclayworks.org; 410-578- Night 2014” (October 1–31) open to 1400; www.sugarloafcrafts.com. ber 4–November 15) open to figurative 1919 ext.18. clay work. Juried from digital. Fee: $10 sculpture primarily made of clay. Fee: $30 May 31 entry deadline per entry. Juror: Peter Jakubowski. Con- for 5 entries. Juror: Adrian Arleo. Contact August 10 entry deadline Pennsylvania, Philadelphia “Sugar- tact Peter Jakubowski, Clay Arts Vegas, Mary Cloonan, Baltimore Clayworks, New York, Rochester “History in loaf Crafts Festival in Oaks” (November 1511 S. Main St., Las Vegas, NV 89104; 5707 Smith Ave., Baltimore, MD 21209; the Making” (October 3–November 8) 7–9) Juried from slides or digital. Fee: [email protected]; http:// [email protected]; open to ceramic work that incorporates $20 per season. Contact Sugarloaf clayartsvegas.com/html/prospectus.html; www.baltimoreclayworks.org; 410-578- historically-based design elements, Craft Festivals, 19807 Executive Park 702-375-4147. 1919 ext.18. themes, materials, or applications. Jur- Circle, Germantown, MD 20874; June 13 entry deadline ied from digital. Fee: $30 for 3 entries; [email protected]; 301-990- united states $5 each additional entry. Juror: Fred Missouri, Joplin “The Joy of Drinking” 1400; www.sugarloafcrafts.com. Herbst. Contact Kate Whorton, Genesee exhibitions (July 17–August 18) all types of drinking May 31 entry deadline Pottery, 713 Monroe Ave., Rochester, May 2 entry deadline vessels including mugs, cups, yunomis, etc. Virginia, Chantilly “Sugarloaf Crafts NY 14607; [email protected]; Virginia, Alexandria “Tabletop Work may not exceed 12 inches in any Festival” (December 12–14) Juried from www.geneseearts.org; 585-271-5183. Ceramic Exhibition” (June 4-July 7) direction or weigh more than 15 pounds. slides or digital. Fee: $20 per season. functional ceramics related to the Juried from digital. Fee: $25. Juror: Nathan October 10 entry deadline Contact Sugarloaf Craft Festivals, 19807 serving, celebration, and enjoyment Falter. Contact Heather Grills, Phoenix New Hampshire, Manchester “2nd Executive Park Circle, Germantown, MD of food and drink. Fee: $35 for up Fired Art, 1603 S. Main St., Joplin, MO Annual Cup Show and Sale” (November 20874; [email protected]; 301- to two entreis. Juror: Tony Clennell. 64801; [email protected]; 417- 10–January 17, 2015) open to funtional 990-1400; www.sugarloafcrafts.com. Contact Rose O’Donnell, The Art 437-9281; www.phoenixfiredart.com. drinking vessels. Juried from digital. Fee: July 31 entry deadline League, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria, June 16 entry deadline $25 for three entries; $10 for each ad- Wisconsin, Madison “Holiday Art VA 22314; [email protected]; California, Stockton “Visions in dtional. Contact Monica Leap, Studio 550 Fair” (November 21–23) open to www.theartleague.org/content/table- Clay” (August 21–September 18) open Community Art Center, 550 Elm St., Man- handmade craft media. Juried from top_2014; 703-683-1780. to functional or sculptural ceramic work chester, NH 03101; [email protected]; digital. Fee: $25. Contact Annik Dupaty, May 7 entry deadline where clay is the primary medium. Juried www.550arts.com; 603-232-5597. Madison Museum of Contemporary Virginia, Lorton “Workhouse Clay Na- from digital. Fee: $30 for 3 entries, $5 December 5 entry deadline Arts, 227 State St., Madison, WI 53703; tional” (August 2–September 7) open to all each additional. Contact Jan Marlese, New Hampshire, Manchester “All [email protected]; www.mmoca.org/ ceramic artists 18 yers and older residing LH Horton Jr Gallery, San Joaquin Delta Things Tea” (January 22–March 6, programs-events/events/holiday-art-fair; in the US. Juried from slides or digital. Fee: College, 5151 Pacific Ave., Stockton, 2015) open to functional and sculptural 608-257-0158.

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Starts featuring world-renowned instructors: cu. ft. Geil Kiln. Visit potterywest.com/a/ For Sale 339 of 370 Ceramics Monthly ASAP, email [email protected] Vincent Massey, James Watkins, Sarah tom-coleman-workshops/ for more issues from 1969–2005. $250 plus ship- for more info. Jaeger, Jim Etzkorn, Rebecca Hutchin- information and call Ruth Kline at (702) ping. A Brent slab roller, model SRC, son, Shirley Rimer, Carol Gouthro and 685-7573 to register. very good condition. $450 plus shipping events more. Additional courses in: , from Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. For Julia Galloway—2 Day Demonstra- drawing, fibre arts, photography, sculp- opportunities more information call 715-325-2152 or tion Workshop at sfclayworks, July 12 ture, jewelry, metals and woodworking. Wanted: One ceramic piece with 1–2 952-240-6051. and 13, 2014. $185 for non-members/ All skill levels welcome. Catalogs avail- lines of poetry with your name under $165 for current sfcw members; in- able online at www.rdc.ab.ca/series. your image. For an NCECA presen- 80 cu. ft. car kiln. Comes with 30 silicon cludes lunch both days. Artist reception Visit the website or call (403) 356-4900 tation. Deadline is April 30. Contact carbide shelves, forced air burners, Friday, July 11 at 6:30 pm; free artist for more information. [email protected] or (715) 570-6720. safety equipment, some posts, pyrom- talk at 7:30 pm. Contact: sfclayworks/ eter, brick chimney, sprung arch, and Galloway, 2240 Palou Ave., San Fran- CLAY Festival 2014: July 30–August Craftsman House Gallery, Café & Stu- cross draft for $10,000. Can send pho- cisco, CA 94124. (415) 647-2529; 3. Silver City, New Mexico. Register dio, St. Petersburg, Florida is seeking tos and more extensive description. Call www.sfclayworks.com. for workshops with Patrick Shia Crabb artist-in-residence. Benefits include Richard in Rockport, Maine at (207) 236- (Raku: A Deconstructive Approach), 24-hour studio space, use of electric 8923 or email [email protected]. Frank Massarella Workshop, Function Diego Valles and Carla Martinez (Mata and gas kilns, studio equipment, and & Art Fusion; June 17-22 in Ojai, CA. Ortiz Pottery), Paul Lewing (New Direc- gallery representation in a vibrant arts BlueStone Studio—A joyful, suc- Throwing, altering, slipping, and glazing. tions in China Painting), and Kathryn community. Responsibilities include cessful, turnkey, pottery studio and Fee: $600. Ojai Pottery & Clay School, Allen (Architectural Ceramics). Now working in the gallery, studio, and café. beautiful gallery in historic, destination contact: [email protected]. accepting entries for International Ju- Opportunity for paid employment for town, Milford, Pennsylvania (72 miles ried Exhibitions: Private ProJECT and hours exceeding trade agreement. For from NYC). Viable alternative to shows Expressive Figures in Clay, Janis Mars Neo-Mimbreño 2014. Enjoy a myriad of information contact Jeff at (727) 323- and wholesale. Owner retiring. Under Wunderlich at Cultural Arts Center, Co- clay-centric activities for all ages. Visit: 2787 or [email protected]. $30,000. David Greenbaum 570-409- lumbus Ohio; $350 includes materials www.CLAYfestival.com. 6553. [email protected]. and open studio; June 23–27; information Kent Blossom Art at Kent State and register: [email protected] Pottery West Summer 2014 Tom University—Summer 2014 ceramics employment or www.culturalartscenteronline.org. Coleman ‘All About Porcelain’ June workshop (June 16–29) now accept- Ceramics Instructor, Part-time. 9–15th. From Copper Reds to Shinos ing student applications. Deadline Glendale Community College. To teach WORKSHOPS at Baltimore Clay- to . What makes a great May 16. Graduate, undergraduate and Glaze Calculation course in Fall 2014. works. ADAM FIELD, Sat–Sun, May 3 glaze depends upon the material transient students welcome. For more Please visit http://apptrkr.com/448484 & 4, 2014; BRYAN HOPKINS, Sat–Sun, you’re applying it to. This hands-on information, visit: http://www.kent.edu/ for further information and to apply. August 16 & 17, 2014; ADRIAN ARLEO; workshop focuses on Porcelain: art/programs/kent-blossom-arts. Sat–Sun, October 25 & 26, 2014. Please throwing, altering, sectional work, ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, Saratoga Active Community Pottery in Yellow visit www.baltimoreclayworks.org or call spray-glazing and firing gas reduction Clay Arts Center, Schuylerville, NY. Springs, Ohio, seeks Studio Direc- 410 578 1919 x10. to cone 10. Includes two firings in a 27 September 2014–August 2015. Ap- tor. Position to start June 23, 2014. cu. ft. Geil Kiln. Visit potterywest.com/ plication deadline July 1, 2014. Please Application deadline May 15, 2014. Ceramics and Jewelry & Metals Work- a/tom-coleman-workshops/ for more visit: saratogaclayarts.org/residency for Details and description on our website: shops at Paducah School of Art and information and call Ruth Kline at (702) details and to apply. www.communitypottery.com/position. Design—Martha Grover, A Passion for 685-7573 to register. Porcelain, June 27–28; Jessica Calde- Apprentice / Internship. Small produc- in NH, willing to train rwood, The Enameled Image, June Pottery West Summer 2014 Amy Kline Throwers Needed tion pottery in northwest Montana seeks but experience a plus. Skilled craftsman 27–28; Harris Deller, Line to Volume and ‘Sculptural Porcelain’ July 14–18th. motivated individual for one-year posi- earn $13.50–$22.50, piece rate can Back Again, July 11–12; Tova Lund, The Masking and blasting, textures and pol- tion starting end of August. 40 hours/ earn more. Email [email protected] Found Object in Contemporary Jewelry, ishing. Compliment your glazes by add- week in exchange for studio space with resume and pictures. Call Andy at August 1–2; Craig Rhodes, On-glaze ing a sculptural surface to your work. (includes materials and firing), room (603) 312-3808 for more information. and Production Techniques, August Throwing, altering and sculptural tech- and board, monthly stipend, and gallery Immediate Opening. 1–2; Susan Beecher, Sensational Salt niques will be covered in this hands-on Fire, August 7–9; Douglas Harling, workshop. Includes a bisque firing and sales. Check www.whitefishpottery.com for more details about applying. Call Production Potter Wanted. Whitefish Granulation: Methods and Techniques, techniques for masking and glazing. (406) 862-8211 with questions. Pottery, a small production pottery lo- August 12–16; and John Neely, Pots Visit potterywest.com/a/amy-kline/ for cated in northwest Montana, is currently for Tea, August 12–16. For more in- more information and call Ruth Kline products seeking a full-time (4–5 days/week) Pro- formation, call (270) 408-4278 or visit at (702) 685-7573 to register. duction Potter to work for ‘piece work’. PaducahSchoolofArtandDesign.org. GREAT NEW HANDBUILDING TEM- Position would start ASAP. Experience Pottery West Summer 2014 Tom Cole- PLATES! Developed by Sandi Pier- preferred; i.e., having worked for ‘piece Summer Workshops at GoggleWorks man ‘Glaze Inspired Form’ August antozzi. A set of 24 durable, flexible, work’ previously. Hiking, Fishing, Skiing, Center for the Arts, Reading, PA. 11–17th. The glaze you use should laminated templates to create Circular Glacier Nat’l Park! Questions? Call Tom Presenters: John Gill, June 2–13; Jerry inspire the forms you create. This & Conical Forms. Perfect for Potters or at (406) 862-8211. Bennett, June 16-27; Gratia Brown, July workshop will focus on how to best Teachers! www.CircleMatic.com.

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www.ceramicsmonthly.org may 2014 95 spotlight looking back, fnding threads

Ceramics Monthly: Since you were Ben Krupka: When was making. My studio practice began to feel mendacious, as featured as an emerging artist in selected as an emerging though I was asleep at the wheel. It became clear that I had 2002, you have created several dis- artist twelve years taken that body of work as far as I could take it. tinct bodies of work. When you look ago, I was fresh out of The decision to explore new bodies of work was slow and back at the work you were making 12 graduate school with frightening. I find an inherent pressure for artistic branding years ago, what elements do you see a steadfast dedication from galleries, peers, and the ceramic culture as a whole, which as either pivotal or as forebearers of to wood firing. That can lead a body of work to continue far beyond the point of the work you are making now? honor was the ultimate artistic growth. Presently, I work at conscious making, and recognition of my taking risks that might open doors beyond my current focus or efforts and a motivating force moving forward. habitual scope. My intense commitment to wood firing led to a self-imposed Though the content that drives the visual outcome is narrowing of parameters, resulting in a solid relationship with constantly evolving, the elements that withstand the test of form and surface. Though the results were worthwhile with time are my enthusiasm for the practice itself and the ongoing positive outcomes, I eventually felt a disconnect between revision of form, surface, and my ideal of beauty. what I was interested in communicating artistically and what I Photo: David LaSpina

96 may 2014 www.ceramicsmonthly.org Spectrum Glazes Continuing to lead the way.

Cone 5 Semi-Transparents and Celadons

1461 1462 1463 1464 1465 1466 Onyx Rainy Cerulean Moroccan Light Celadon Day Blue Celadon The newest additions to our glaze lineup are twelve mid-range Semi- Transparent glazes. These are the perfect complement to detailed ware and offer a wide-range of color offerings with a focus on the many faces of Celadons in an electric oxidation environment.

1467 1468 1469 1470 1471 1472 Spring Bottle Mimosa Cranberry Orchid Watermelon Green Green

SPECTRUM GLAZES INC. ● CONCORD, ONT. PH: (800) 970-1970 ● FAX: (905) 695-8354 ● www.spectrumglazes.com ● [email protected] Front Loader Get a peek at Tom’s new glazes and see what he has to say about Skutt’s New Front Loading Kiln at: skutt.com

Artist: Tom Turner Photos: Gary Rawlins

Fi Finally... a Front Loading Electric Kiln backed by the quality of Skutt.

For more information on Skutt Kilns or to find a distributor, visit us at www.skutt.com or call us directly at 503.774.6000

tom Turner Rough Final Revised.indd 1 2/23/12 12:48:55 PM