I'm Still Standing

End of the semester. 'Nuff Said.
BRB.

Night Mother

Some would argue that the advancement of technology allows us to become more lazy...and what's the problem with that? 

This vessel called "Night Drink" by Alex Gil allows for the consumer to take a drink without leaving the reclined position. One could argue that this could aid those in need, similar to an invalid cup. But we all know that these are just for the guys who love beer hats and want something to use while they sip beer on the couch. 

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Cheech Marin-Pot Head

A) Yes I know this is obvious
B) I have hated the Pottery-Marijuana jokes since I heard my first when I was 16. The same with "Harry Potter" Those people can stuff it.


But, I did come across an interesting story yesterday. As some you may know yesterday was 4.20. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it. 

Anyhoo, I was listening to The Adam Carrolla Podcast and the guests were Cheech and Chong. They were discussing how they got together and it leads back to pottery. Apparently Cheech, who is from Southern California, had run off to Canada to a) avoid the draft. b) work as a production potter. He is unclear on the name of the person he was working for but he seemed to know his stuff, talking competently about throwing off the hump. It was in Canada that he Met Tommy Chong and they began their team.

On that note, Carolla himself has long spoken of being a "Ceramics Major" in High School. Unfortunately he uses this as an example of how worthless his education was... Of course we all know that it has nothing to do with the education you receive, but how you use it.

Listen to the interview here.

Flashlight

These flashlights are slipcast porcelain and work as pendant lamps. The item description does not say if they are translucent. Get them here. 

Pop Your Collar!

"Three flower vases made in collaboration with Ceramic Japan, a firm in Seto, an area in Aichi Prefecture historically known for its ceramics. The three forms make up a family: a heavyset 'father', a slim 'mother' and a smaller 'child'. Each vase looks like an ordinary vase from one direction. Viewed from the other side, however, each has its own 'collar'. When we dress, our hair and clothing correspond to each other. These vases play on the similar relationship between the flower and the vase.The vases are unglazed white porcelain, for a clean, clothing-like texture."


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What was it?

There is no fooling you folks.
This is the Gourmet Trio Plate by Jean Marc Gady and is available here.

Peeple

Sometimes, things are too fantastic for words. This is one of those things. 

These are Peeple, heat activated, two layer decals that live inside large format urinals. As the decals are.... ummm, deposited on, the top layer disappears with the heat of the urine. Revealing the undergarments of the people.

...As if getting peed upon was not degrading enough. Unless that is your thing.

Created by Alex Schweder and Dieter Janssen  

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Mac the Knife

Hi All,


I hope eveyone had a great weekend. Our's was great. We finally finished the painting of the two last rooms in the house! It was a lot of wall paper stripping, skim coating sanding, priming and painting. But the Job is done. I will admit that we hit a wall. I'm going to blame the winter, Sometime around early February, when the wallpaper stripping in the office only lead to reveal that we had to do total skim coat jobs on two of the walls. I could not continue, I had to hibernate for the winter. But spring is now springy, our obnoxiously colored house is now done and I am writing this from the environs of our new orange office.


As everyone knows I love ceramics. I also love cooking and ceramic technology. Three great tastes that go great together. Of course one of the coolest developments in the modern ceramic chef's kitchen is the ceramic knife. These bad boys keep a wicked blade and don't develop a ribbon in the ways that a metal knife does. The review posted over at one on my favorite food blogs The Kitchn is discussing a set by Victorinox. This set sounds great because they are light and durable. But I am really fascinated because this set is quite affordable. Now the article states that these are expensive, but any cook who is worth their salt, has spent quite a bit more on a knife. Anyone who considers themselves to be serious in the kitchen will have a pretty bad knife habit, with a funnel going directly from their knife dealer from their bank account. So I really want to get one of these for my next fix.

Riding the Wiki Wiki Bus

I have always been a huge advocate for communication in ceramics. See such examples as...this blog. I think that the ceramics community is really good at making attempts to share information. And the community was quick to jump online. Allowing for large pockets of solitary workers form together in a single community. The problem being that the modes of communication stalled somewhere in the Mid 90's. Not To say that communication stopped. But, I do think that we all failed to take part in the news features of the web as it grew. Now all that is changing. With the rise of Ceramics Blog, for communication, critique, and teaching. As well as the birth of several new message boards (Here and Here). We have the ability to talk to each other.

I met a nice gentleman at NCECA named Simon Levin, told me about his new website, Wikiclay. I have to beleive that if you made it to my blog, you are familiar with the Wiki format. As a community of the people for the people. The Wiki allows us to facilitate information exchange, in a way that is centralized, regulated and consistent.

Of course the catch is that the Wiki can only survive if the community is active in it. If you know just a little about a subject, go ahead and start a post, add what you know. Right or wrong the community will massage it into the best information we can generate.

So go forth and educate.

Wikiclay

Waging Peace

The Army Helmet Bowl, sold over at Molla Space is a little uncomfortable but for a good reason. This piece questions the nature of the container in a difficult way. Questioning the value of the container and the contents therein and the function after use. 

Disturbing in it's simplicity and message. I like this a lot, even though it violates many of the notions that I have about  form and function. 

Also this piece is a fundraiser for A.N.S.W.E.R. so it is for a good cause.


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Iron-ic

Art Lebedev Studios are one of the more interesting design groups out there. Consistently coming up with new and engaging things. 

This new project, entitled the Ironius Mug, is a combination mug and clothing iron. For those pressed for time and under caffeinated.  

Alton Brown, my favorite cooking show host, always declares his disdain for Uni-Taskers. Tools that only perform one job. This is a Multi-Tasker for sure...But, I would be afraid of spilling coffee on my shirts and staining them.


Sorry for the gratuitous "function" shot. Blame the designer and not the blogger. 

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Tipsy

This Teapot/Stand combo by Betina Piqueras has a lot going for it. It has a certain elegance, and some functionality, especially for those with wrist and arm problems. It can really make pouring easy. 

But of course I can't talk about many things without talking about the shortcomings. It seems to me that the Teapot must be perfectly balanced from back to front. That is difficult, but not impossible. If the handle and the spout have equal weight distribution then the pot will work well. Yet, This design does not take into account...the motion of the ocean, as it were. There is no locking mechanism. Odd that. 

If the pot is that well balanced, then a small amount of sway, say a kick to the table, can send the beverage spilling all over the tea party. 

Bad times...


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I'm Back!

Hi All,

It's good to be home. I had a fantastic time at NCECA. Thanks to all the people who came to our lecture. We had an astounding turnout and I was really happy to have you all there. Except for a few technical snafus it went off without a hitch.

I was extremely excited to meet everyone who introduced themselves to me. It is really hard to not have faces to put to all of you. So getting the opportunity to talk you everyone was fantastic. Y'all were very kind and friendly and I was just tickled.

I have lots of new stuff to show and talk about. I'm going to start with one new that that launched while I was away.

As I have discussed before, we all need to expand our constructive conversation in our little community. Ceramics Arts Daily has launched a new message board. In the spirit of honesty, they have asked me to moderate the technical section of the site. I hope to have a productive discussion and help to advance the tech talk in ceramics. The Boards already have 775 members as of this writing, and that is a great start to the community,

I have to admit that I was a little dispirited at NCECA with a few of the conversations I had and some talks that I saw. I found that a lot of the tech talk was saturated with ceramic mis-information and myths being taught as truth. We all need to take it upon ourselves to learn as much good information as we can and to put the falsities to bed.

So I will see you all there.