ceramics

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Art Craft

Artist Mimics Japanese ‘Kintsugi’ Technique to Repair Broken Vases with Embroidery

Brighton-based artist Charlotte Bailey was fascinated by the traditional Japanese mending technique called kintsugi, where a broken ceramic object is repaired with gold, silver or platinum, to accentuate the damage and ‘honor’ its history. In this interpretation, Bailey utilizes an embroidery method to reassemble a broken vase—a sort of hybrid between kintsugi and darning with a beautiful result. She first wraps each broken piece in fabric and then uses gold metallic thread to painstakingly patchwork the pieces together. While the process isn’t meant to make the vase functional again, it does produce a striking sculptural object. We’d love to see many more of these. You can follow more of her embroidery work on Facebook.

Update: Artist Zoe Hillyard has been using a similar technique to create ceramic patchwork since 2010.

Amazing Craft Design

A 150-Year-Old Porcelain Warehouse in Japan Opens for Daily ‘Treasure Hunts’ for Just $45

The Kouraku Kiln was founded in Arita (Saga Prefecture, Japan) in 1865 and has been producing ceramics for the past 150 years. Over that time the facility has accumulated a vast collection of pottery that has, for one reason or another, gone unsold. The warehouse is so vast that some workers use a bicycle to get from one side to the other. And they’ll be the first to admit that even they don’t really know what’s in there. The production facility is now inviting visitors on a “treasure hunt” to try and get rid of some of their stock.

Here’s how the treasure hunt works:

— Make your reservation by phone (they only allow 10 people per day)
— Show up at your designated time and select your course and pay: 5,000 yen or 10,000 yen (about $45 to $90)
— Get a 30-min tour of the facility
— Begin your 90-min treasure hunt. You’ll be given a pair of gloves, a flashlight and a basket. You can take home everything you fit in your basket.
— The more expensive course gives you access to a special section of decoratively painted ceramics but both allow you to take home as much as you can fit in your basket. Once done you’ll get to wrap everything up in newspaper so that nothing breaks on your way home.

It sounds like a really fun excursion! They even have an English-speaking staff on hand to assist foreigners.

(Syndicated from Spoon & Tamago)

Art

Ceramic Busts Overgrown With Twisted Vines and Colorful Flowers by Jess Riva Cooper

Jess Riva Cooper (previously) produces smooth ceramic busts, the mouths agape rather than closed in smile or silent contemplation. Tangled vines and rosebuds sprout from their mouths, and in some cases leaves from plants pop from the busts’ noses, engulfing the faces in their entirety. In each bust the plants are used as both ornamentation and methods of destruction, forming crowns on the subjects’ heads as they wrap themselves around the neck in a threatening gesture.

These classic sculptures with a vegetative twist were inspired by deteriorating economic and environmental climates in places such as Detroit, Michigan where homes have been swallowed by the plants around them, their locations reclaimed by nature. It is this thin line between life and death that Cooper imbues into her human forms, nature springing and wrapping around her white figures.

The Toronto-based artist and educator received her MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design and currently teaches at Sheridan College in the craft and design program. (via Hi Fructose)

Art

Ceramic Coral Reefs by Courtney Mattison Draw Attention to Earth’s Changing Oceans

“Aqueduct” (2016), glazed stoneware and porcelain, 8 x 8 x 1 feet, all images via Courtney Mattison

“Aqueduct” (2016), glazed stoneware and porcelain, 8 x 8 x 1 feet

Doubling as an artist and ocean advocate, Courtney Mattison (previously) produces large-scale ceramic installations that draw attention to conservation of our planet’s seas. Her latest installation “Aqueduct” showcases hundreds of porcelain sea creatures including anemones, sponges, and coral sprouting from a porcelain air duct. The piece asks us to imagine the plight of these undersea creatures as tropical sea temperatures begin to rise, asking where they might migrate to once their homes have been rendered uninhabitable.

In addition to large-scale installations, Mattison also sculpts more intimate vignettes. Her series “Hope Spots” depicts areas in our seas that are critical to the overall health of the ecosystem. Each of the sculptures is a representation of one of these spots as identified by Mattison’s longtime hero and marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle.

The Denver-based artist studied marine ecology and ceramics at Skidmore College and received a Master of Arts degree in environmental studies from Brown University. Last year she was named one of the top 100 “Ocean Heroes” by Origin Magazine. Her most recent exhibition is “Sea Change” currently at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art through April 17, 2016. You can see more of Mattison’s finished and in-progress installations on her Instagram.

“Aqueduct” (2016), glazed stoneware and porcelain, 8 x 8 x 1 feet

“Aqueduct” (2016), glazed stoneware and porcelain, 8 x 8 x 1 feet

“Coral Sea II” (2015), glazed stoneware + porcelain, 17 x 16.5 x 11.5 inches

“Chagos Archipelago II” (2015), glazed stoneware + porcelain, 17 x 16 x 9 inches

“Outer Seychelles II” (2015), glazed stoneware, 17 x 16 x 9 inches

“Micronesian Islands” (2015), glazed stoneware + porcelain, 17 x 17.5 x 12.5 inches

Craft

Ceramics Imprinted with Patterns of Vintage Typewriter Letters by Laura C. Hewitt

Ceramic artist Laura C. Hewitt creates a wide range of cups, plates, and other ceramic objects imprinted with letters and numbers from old typewriter keys. The Alaska-based artist utilizes fragments from mathematical formulas, programming languages, and other science-influenced designs, all carefully applied with a variety of typewriter letters in black ink to create one-of-a-kind pieces. Hewitt shares about her craft:

Most of my work has been influenced by the dichotomies and juxtapositions of rural Alaskan living. I’m particularly interested in exploring the intersections between technology and nature, art and craft, destruction and creation. As inspiration, I look for the magical within the mundane, provoke thoughtfulness with the practical and animate the pragmatic with mischievousness.

The typographical pieces are really just the tip of the iceberg, you can see many more of her wilderness and tech-inspired ceramics in her Etsy shop. (via Culture N Lifestyle)

Art Design Music

Music and Sound Vibrations 3D Printed Into Ceramic Vessels

All images via Studio van Broekhoven

Bouncing rhythmically to a deep beat, Studio van Broekhoven’s 3D printer produces ceramic vessels scored by sound. The objects spins as clay is applied in response to the amplified noise, forging visual markings into the clay by way of audio wavelengths. The project, “Solid Vibration” was produced by spatial sound designer Ricky van Broekhoven and designer Olivier van Herpt, who have been co-producing the objects that appear almost like woven baskets.

The project developed out of the collaborators’ combined wish to host Broekhoven’s “noisescapes” as solidified objects that could physically represent his abstract tones. For each of the vessels, a specially constructed speaker rig is mounted below the printing platform to emit a low sound that will influence the printing. “A moment in time, a song, a sound, they can now become objects that encapsulate the moment forever,” explains van Herpt’s website.

You can hear more of van Broekhoven’s work here, while taking a glance at more of van Herpt’s ceramics here. (via The Creator’s Project)