Geometric

These Salt and Pepper shakers come from Imm Living

Bird Brained

Who says birds don't have great taste?
from Kathrin Jilg Design 
Via

Best Mug Ever

D.I.Y. Validation!


Link 
Via

You're a Doll

I like to avoid a lot of analysis and philosophizing about the things I post here. It seems to me that that should be left up to you folks. I do often state that I love a lot of the things that are on the fringes of "Art Ceramics" Things like China painting, Grandma Ceramics and Mass produced ware. I love all that stuff. One of those often ignored things is Porcelain Dolls. I have one friend that makes a lot of dolls and they are a much ignored art form. I stumbled across these and my breath was taken away. 

Artist Marina Bychkova has created a series of stunning Porcelain Dolls. The only thong I will say is that the few images I posted here are barely representative of her work. Full of detail, creativity and stunning beauty, All I can do is sit an gawk. I recommend you do the same.

Article

Her Deviant Art Page

Interview with Marina.

Crowd Sourcing

Hey All.


So I just came across these Porcelaine 150 Markers. I have never seen them before, and I am wondering if any of you have used them and have an experience to share? I came across them on The Kitchn in a post about redecorating dinner ware. Seems like a cool tool, but of course I'm skeptical as always.

Description from the maker


Porcelaine 150 markers are perfect for decorating and personalizing any piece of china, porcelain, ceramic, tile, metal, etc. Simply draw or write on any slick surface including pieces such as cups, mugs, plates, candlesticks, and more. Then bake it in a kitchen oven to make it permanent.  Colors are water-based and non-toxic. Once baked, the finish is is permanent, microwave and dishwasher safe, and glossy like true glazed ceramics.


Sounds Cool, But are they really???

Divide and conquer

The best thing that we have done in our kitchen is the use of little bowls. We must have 4 sets of little bowls that we use in cooking. for separating out ingredients and having them ready when we need them in the cooking process. 

This nice little cutting board/bowl by Kain Lucas of Ute Australian Design is a evolution of that idea. Taking cooking and anal retention to a whole new level...now to get all of the chopped pieces sized exactly the same.


via

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof is generating electricity

Italian company Tegolasolare, has developed a series of terra cotta roof tiles with photovoltaic cells embedded. Allowing for a roof that is both attractive and functional in many ways.

via

Green(ware) with Envy

Hi Everyone!

I'm back, I just rolled into town last night after a long trip east.
I had a fantastic time teaching my seminar at Castle Hill. We had a great group of people who were really engaged in the glaze calc talk. It is so great to work with folks who are loving what they are doing. It is amazing how much fun we forget to have in academia. We forget that making stuff in clay is tons of fun and making stuff  is pretty much the best thing out there. So I am the one who is green with envy. I am jealous of my students and all of you out there who are having fun with clay.Thanks for a great workshop and I hope to work with each and everyone of you reading the blog in the future.
 

Prospero's Drinks

Someone has gone and done it. Yes, we finally have a Tempest in a Tea Cup. 
Made by John Lumbus this little automata is a charming little thing. 

via
Thanks to Mrs. Rose.

Square square

Banraby Barford has created his own version of Trafalgar Square. 

-
Trafalgar Square has been described as the blank slab upon which Britain has inscribed it's modern history, in Barford's version Drink, Violence, Consumerism, Junk food, Protest and Terrorism all inhabit this world.

In the piece's centre is a Lion looking a great deal sadder than the ones in the real Trafalgar Square - It has been covered in graffiti. The piece is formalised by 4 columns with cherubs on top, each covered in pigeons and bird shit. The rest of the piece comprises of 22 individual pieces, each a vignette of contemporary life. The saccharine figurines have been transformed from chocolate box, romantic images of life into a new, jarring narrative. Added tension is given to the piece in the form of a loan sports bag, entitled unattended luggage.
- 

via

Crime Wave

I first wrote about a porcelain theft in England almost a year ago. Since then, this single crime has turned into a crime wave across the county with at least 21 successful and 15 attempted robberies. I would be angry, if I didn't find this so cool. Sort of like a crime movie where you are rooting for the bad guy.



Monkey business by porcelain gang leaves stately homes counting cost

Ben Hoyle and Jack Malvern

•  

England’s stately homes are being targeted by thieves with a penchant for antique porcelain — and their victims include the Prime Minister’s father in law.
There have been at least 21 major thefts and 15 attempted robberies in the past three years The Art Newspaper reports this week.
Dick Ellis, former head of Scotland Yard’s art and antiques unit, said that three organised gangs, each with a distinctive style, were believed to be behind the thefts.
One gang relies on an unusually small burglar to squeeze through narrow openings; another operates at night, often using a ladder, and removes sections of glass from windows; the third targets country houses open to visitors, using very rapid, forced entry. Gangs often also take curtains and cushions to use as packing for the fragile porcelain, though some pieces are damaged during thefts.
Mr Ellis assembled the data for the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, which is handling the most serious case, at Firle Place in Sussex, where £500,000 of porcelain was stolen last summer. Others include Sutton Park, North Yorkshire, the home of Sir Reginald Sheffield, the father of Samantha Cameron, the Prime Minister’s wife.
Firle Place was burgled on July 19, 2009. Thieves entered the 18th-century mansion on the Sussex Downs at night. They climbed a ladder, entered via a window and broke into two display cabinets. Among the losses were a Meissen statue, The Indiscreet Harlequin, around 1743, by Johann Kändler, and a rare Sèvres Hollandois Nouveau vase of 1761. None of the 20 pieces has been recovered. Firle Place is owned by the family of the London old-master dealer Deborah Gage.
The theft at Sutton Park was on May 21, 2009. The Georgian house has been owned by the Sheffield family since 1963. Like Firle Place, it is open to visitors. Objects stolen included a £20,000 Meissen teapot in the form of a monkey, and a 19th-century bronze bust of an Asian woman by Charles Cordier. The thieves spent no longer than a minute inside the house. On April 17 there had been an attempted burglary in the porcelain room.
Mr Ellis believes that the thieves dispose of the porcelain quickly. Some use eBay, as with the theft from Longner Hall in Shrewsbury last August, when losses included a 28-piece Worcester dessert service, Most of the stolen pieces have not been recovered and Mr Ellis suspects that many have gone to Europe, where Meissen and Sèvres are highly collectable. Items may well be sold at large antiques fairs in England, usually within a few days of the theft, and passed to unsuspecting Continental dealers. There have been very few arrests.
“British police forces are run on a county basis,” Mr Ellis said. “No force has an overview of similar crimes occurring elsewhere, so investigations are limited and local.”
Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, which enables people to find out whether items are stolen, said thieves had learnt that porcelain dealers were less assiduous than others in making checks. Criminals probably gain their knowledge of the market from dealers on the fringes. “In Ireland they would call them tinkers,” he said.
Raided properties
Burton Agnes Hall (Historic Houses Association) East Yorkshire
Castle Howard (HHA) North Yorkshire
Cusworth Hall South Yorkshire
Firle Place (HHA) East Sussex
Grantham House (National Trust) Lincolnshire
Hastings Museum East Sussex
Lanhydrock (NT) Cornwall
Longner Hall (HHA) Shropshire
Munstead House Surrey
Penshurst Place Kent
Private house Surrey
Private house West Yorkshire
Redbrick Mill West Yorkshire
Shugborough Hall (NT) Staffs
Sion Hill Hall (HHA) North Yorkshire
Sutton Park (HHA) North Yorkshire
The Hoo Hertfordshire
Temple Newsam West Yorkshire
Thorpe Hall East Yorkshire
Uppark (NT) West Sussex
West Green House (NT, tenanted) Hampshire

Getting Steamed

Being a child of the 80's and 90's I have expressed my love of the thermally activated mug before. I find their cheese to be charming.
Yet, I have never seen the technology used for a functional application, until now. The folks at STATIC! have come up with these thermall activated tiles that tell you about your water usage. This is because, as you use your shower, the hot steam activates the thermal decals.
-
Heat is a form of energy that is often taken for granted, invisibly escaping from appliances, boiling water, lamps and radiators. Energy lost through heat may be visualized if artifacts communicate leakage in various ways. In the example ‘Disappearing-Pattern Tiles’, bathroom tiles are decorated with patterns in a thermo-chromic ink that reacts to heat, fading away to reflect splashes and intensities of hot-water use. The longer the shower, the less decoration on the wall! The architectural surface acts as a subtle reminder of personal energy use over time, reflecting the duration and waste of water during a shower.

Project Team: Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken, Anna Lindgren, Katja Sävström
-


via

Pot(ty) Mouth

I have no idea who Ron White is but the article in question mentions that he is a member of the Jeff Foxworthy/ Larry The Cable Guy, Blue Collar Comedy Tour.
The article mentions that before his career in comedy, he worked as a potter in New Mexico. 
I am increasingly amazed at this list that has emerged of Celebrity Ceramicists grows longer and longer.
via

The Bomb

Guerrilla Gardening has now been taken to the logical application.
These seed grenades, now allow you to go both Johnny Appleseed and G.I. Joe all over your neighborhood.

Get them here 
via

L’Artisan Electronique

The folks at Unfold Fab Design are at it again, 

We have previously discussed their creation of a 3D Printer for ceramics made of (relatively) simple technology. 

Now they have gone a step farther and created a virtual wheel. Using a laser scanner, they are able to translate the movements of the users hands and plot it against a virtual vessel. Those plots are then used as the framework for their printer. 


Unfold & Tim Knapen - L'Artisan Electronique from Kunst in Limburg on Vimeo.

More Pics
Thanks to Sarah G.

The Sheriff of Dillingham

As you may know, one of my favorite things about pots is seeing them in action. Galleries and blended gray backgrounds are nice and all but we need to see pots out there kicking ass and taking names. 


One of my favorite potters out there Ayumi Horie has a great project called Pots in Action. Where she is asking users of Ayumiware to document their pots in the wild. 

Pots in Action is an on-going community project that documents how my pots are being used and interacted with in daily life. Some are candid, some are posed, but all come straight from the community without any art direction from me. What people come up with amazes me!

In part, I’m a potter because I see pots as having the incredible privilege of being part of people’s private, everyday lives. Because of this intimacy, we let our guard down around pots, allowing them to convey ideas about aesthetics, function, and social issues. Through repeated use, pots can create habit and be comforting, creating memory for those using the pots. They are objects of service and conduits between people. 

These pots are independent of me; they are finding their own way and accumulating histories with various people, in various homes, in various places around the world. Many thanks to all those who use my pots and contributed to this project. Keep the pictures coming. 

Pretty Sweet.

If you want to get in on the action, today is the day, because today is also the start of Ayumi's  Big, Big Spring Sale. She is unveiling a bunch of new pots, and as you can see from the images here,  they are pretty sweet. 

Check out the Sale here

Down and Dirty

Ok, I know we all hate the Ghost references at this point, but what can I say, I'm a sucker for dogs. 
In this ad for Lifetime (television for women) we have two cute pups doing the dirty deed.