Nurturing, inspiring and showcasing new talent are at the heart of what we do at the British Ceramics Biennial – and have been since we started our work back in 2009. The most prominent way that we do this is through our platform for emerging ceramic

Jun ware occupies an important place in the history of Chinese ceramics, named after the city of Yuzhou in Henan Province, where it was first made. Yuzhou was known as ‘Juntai’ during the Xia Dynasty (thought to be approximately 2070-1600 BC), and lo

My grandfather John Wilbur Carr grew up in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania in the town of Punxsutawney. His ancestors settled in Western Pennsylvania after the Wyoming Valley Massacre of 1778 forced them from the farm they had, near the present-day Na

Q: After I turn off the kiln why are the positions of my pyrometric cones different when I unload the kiln? The pyrometric cones are designed to show heat work (energy input during firing, normally represented in terms of temperature and time) that h

It all started with a visit to the Danish Design Museum in Copenhagen about 30 years ago. British potter Edmund de Waal was faced with an old-fashioned display case with a dense grouping of Axel Salto’s ceramics. There they were, side by side, these

Jane Yang-D’Haene was born in South Korea and came to New York in 1984 to study architecture. Now Brooklynbased, she began to work in clay only in 2016 and is using it for tableware, lighting, furniture and vessels of the sort in this exhibition. Up

This is an indispensable book. For anyone interested in contemporary Japanese ceramics it offers an indepth look at the setting and the players through interviews with artists and dealers. Traditions, training, new ideas and opportunities are disclos

It is widely known that Sōetsu Yanagi tried to establish a uniquely eastern aesthetic, different from western modern aesthetics, through Buddhist thinking. His craft theory, called ‘Mingei Theory’, was established through the concept of ‘nondualistic

Until recently, there have only been two institutions in Italy classified as ‘Istituto Raro’ (Unique Institutions): The Antonio Stradivari International School of Violin Making in Cremona, and The Institutum Statuaria Ars Carrara Pietro Tacca IPSAM i

If you enjoy the adventure of alternative firing, but have only an electric kiln, Saggar Firing in an Electric Kiln (2021) is the guide for you. This book explains how to use an electric kiln to attain the natural earthy colors and spontaneous patter

Conceptual ceramics have unlimited boundaries, and go beyond household utility into issues of societal concerns. This series uses a conceptual approach to portray and interrogate the electioneering malpractices that have bedeviled the political lands

More than a decade after her death, Toshiko Takaezu’s (1922-2011) stature is still climbing – higher even than during her lifetime. One pot sold for $500 at auction in 1999; last year a similar one sold for $550,000. Her third posthumous retrospectiv

Onta is a potter’s dream destination. Internationally renowned, Onta (also known as Onda), is a mountainside village which lies in the centre of Sarayama, a valley in Kyushu’s Oita Prefecture, Japan. Within its picturesque rural setting, there are ju

As one’s practice evolves, the dynamic is driven by the excitement of the next piece of work, the next firing, the next exhibition, one seldom stops to reflect on the journey taken. So it was for me until a chance conversation with a publisher at a b

I have been working with Bone China for more than 20 years, and have mainly used it as a vehicle for decoration with soluble salts which I have been working with for most of that time. Living in South Africa, finding consistent materials is often a p

Let’s face it – bricks are boring. They are rectangular, made of clay, and simply used as literal ‘building’ blocks for utilitarian purposes. I thought this way for decades. I have used firebricks to build gas, sagger, wood, and raku kilns. Aside fro

There has long been a passionate interest in collecting Australian pottery. Initially led by dedicated collectors and researchers who published books and curated ground breaking exhibitions on all aspects of the topic, it was roughly divided into ‘ar

When looking at an unfamiliar work of art in a museum, one often seeks out the label first. I encourage foregoing the label for a few moments. Just study the work. Sketching the work is the best method I’ve found to force myself into close observatio

Historically, Chinese people have believed that illustrations encouraged morality, discipline, and favorable conduct in children. This ideology gave birth to a generation of images based on child-rearing, with earlier works depicting fictional charac

While the evolution of contemporary Nigerian ceramics practice can be traced back to traditional art practices, a differing set of factors influence its trajectory. The current inclusion of ceramic art into Nigerian higher education curricula is an e

Each of Eiji Uematsu’s modest-scale ceramic objects and plaques is a succinct statement. Each seems considered, and then honed so that it is nothing more than it needs to be. The 16 diminutive works in Alison Bradley’s small New York gallery employ a

The ever-evolving landscape of art analysis has been shaped by an intricate tapestry of art movements and trends spanning centuries. Each era of artistic evolution brings with it renewed debate surrounding what constitutes ‘art’. Historically, this d

Q: What are the green specks in my moist clay? At some point almost every potter will experience mold growth in moist clay. Mold occurs when microscopic spores attach to clay or other transfer mediums either in the mining, storage, processing, mixing

Image credit: Ole Akhøj © Axel Salto / VISDA/Image credit: Ole Akhøj © Axel Salto / VISDA ■

In 1977, following the publication of my book, Salt Glazed Ceramics, I discovered, dismayingly, that my passion for that subject had expired, due to running out of questions to explore. Shortly afterward, in an antique shop I came across a wood fired