All posts by Daniel Bende

Designs and creates under the trade name DFB-ceramics hand-thrown stoneware figurative ceramics.
Inspiration, Personally

Even the gods have to make clay test tiles

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All ceramists make clay test tiles.  These are used to see if the clay is suitable for work and firing at the desired temperature. But these small clay tiles are also used to see if the glaze is good and suitable for that clay.

My stock of test tiles started to come to an end, so it was time to make new ones. Devising and making glaze tests is second nature for me. This is what makes ceramics so different from other art forms. A writer is not going to develop a PC before he starts writing.

Making clay test tilesMaking clay test tilesClay test tiles unfiredClay test tiles stackedBut a ceramist, who makes his own work, cannot escape pre-testing. Can’t escape the technique of making. Can’t escape the laws of nature. Even the gods cannot escape from making clay test tiles…

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Clay, Technique

Finishing small ceramic owls

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Today I reserved for writing a blog and finishing a few ceramic owls. Of course not “finishing” as a butcher, but just the opposite of bringing them life. Not a blog about the design process, but the physical “making”.  After all, if you are a maker 🙂 .

A while ago I shared a few photos of my making process on Insta . I received some nice responses. So I thought it would be a good idea to explain the physical process in this blog using photos and text.

Ceramic owls thrown on the wheelIn short I would like to show you how I work.

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Glaze, Technique

Arriving at glaze temperature

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A ceramist wants to arrive as an artist, a ceramic glaze wants to arrive at the right glaze temperature. Greg Daly calls this “arriving at temperature” in his glaze travels. Who dares to say that there is no poetry in ceramic glazes?

Daly provides methods to investigate at which temperature glazes melt, but no (theoretical) tools to  predict this for a given glaze. However, you do need this if you want to design a glaze with a predetermined temperature. If you don’t know which corner to look in, it is also hard to get there.

Glaze temperature is a mechanism, as there are several in glaze technology. To be able to decipher this mechanism you have to look from the right angle (more about this in this blog).

For glaze temperature this is the oxide level. If we dissect a glaze into oxides (the different molecules in a glaze) it is possible to discover trends.

I am still researching how to arrive as an artist, but I have guidelines to arrive at the right melting temperature for any glaze. In this blog I explore the three main ratios:

  • SiO2 -Al2O3
  • RO2 -RO
  • B2O3
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Technique

Handmade Ceramics Design, from Mud to Mug

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Design is the arrangement of visual elements in space. Handmade ceramics design is no exception. Except that you get mud on your hands (and on the floor and the rest of the studio). But are there any other differences?

For my mug project I thought it would be fun to put it to the test. Do theory and practice match? In this blog I will gladly take you into my ceramics design process. In other words: from mud to mug.

From mud to Mug Continue reading Handmade Ceramics Design, from Mud to Mug →

Inspiration, Personally

Museum Bernard Palissy, Saint Avit

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With this third blog about Museum Bernard Palissy I conclude my French ceramics triptych of the past few weeks. It was Palissy who lured us to southern France this year. A fitting ending to finish at his birthplace, Saint Avit…

More than 500 years after his birth, the myth of Palissy lives on. One of the first ceramists to stil known by name with his own “rustic” style. A style that has had counterfeiters, imitator and followers to the present day.

Bernard Palissy in Museum Bernard PalissyA renaissance ceramist, scientist, writer and martyr. Died in captivity, glaze secrets taken into his grave. Loved by the French ceramics connoisseurs. His myth, even outside France, still appeals to the imagination.

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Inspiration, Personally

Died glaze secrets of Bernard Palissy

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Bernard Palissy looks at his last wood being digested by the flames. But the ceramics kiln roars like a hungry wolf for more. With tears in his eyes of smoke, sweat, fatigue and despair he scans the room. Floor shelves, tables, chairs and everything else that burns fall prey to his kiln. He will and he must reach the temperature to melt his glazes…

Saintes around 1540 in the south of France. Bernard Palissy (1510-1590) experiments as a man possessed. Or insane as his neighbors claim. He is looking for an elusive glaze that he got to know on one of his distant travels.

His wife and children are threatening to leave him. Nevertheless, he put everything at risk to develop a glaze, which is unprecedented in 16th century France.

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Inspiration, Personally

A ceramics enthusiast in the South of France

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What does a ceramics enthusiast look for in southern France? As a child in a candy factory. Just one problem. There is so much ceramics in the south of France that you can’t possibly see everything at once.

When I think of ceramics in the South of France, I smell the lavender mixed with goat cheese. Then I see green hills where rivers splash through the landscape. From a corner of my eye, a salamander shoots away, warming up to the sun’s rays shooting through the canopy. And just below it … lies gold. Black or white, it is for the taking or actually for excavation.

This is also the region where 500 years ago Bernard Palissy (1510-1590) grew up. The landscape he walked through looking for work. He didn’t only found work, he was also inspired by it. He went looking for his “Recepte Véritable“, the true recipe of the earth, ceramics, glazes and the rest of life.

An Artist's travel guide to the Ceramics Museums of Europe, Alexandra Copeland (1999) I am always looking for the true recipe, so this summer I went to the country of Palissy with my girlfriend. … With in my pocket “an artist’s travel guide to the Ceramics Museums of Europe” (Don’t leave home without it).

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Personally, Technique

Hand-made ceramics pictures

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It is again (well almost) vacation, so time for (drum roll) handmade ceramics pictures. Why?

Next year a new NVK-Ceramics member guide will be released with all the affiliated ceramic artists form the Netherlands and Belgium (yeah!!). But that also means I had to go to work…

No, not to make new ceramic sculptures, but to capture my new work digitally. In this online world a significant part of making ceramics. And whoever makes his own ceramics, also takes his own photos.

DFB-Ceramic Bottle BirdI hear you thinking, “that you are taking your own pics, is really obvious“.

Okay, fair point, you don’t have to take your own photos. It’s hard enough to make ceramics. But I like to learn things by doing it myself. That is the nature of this beast. Continue reading Hand-made ceramics pictures →

Clay, Firing, Glaze, Technique

3 Ceramics Mystifications Unmasked

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Making ceramics is magical, ceramics mystifications certainly are not. Ceramics and glazes are surrounded by a cloud of thick black smoke. And I do not mean the smoke when firing raku.

Copper Red EnamelTheory behind practice is often unnecessarily made very complicated. Because of ignorance, to impress? I have no idea, but it has always frustrated my quest for clear knowledge. Time for unmasking.

In this blog I grab three ceramics mystifications by the clay.. euh horns.

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Personally

Ceramics packing Friday

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Today is packing Friday. No departure or farewell, it is for the ceramics sale. When I am selling online I usually send it also on a Friday (so I call that too packing Friday). But now it’s for the ceramics fair.

Packing ceramics for shipment is already an art, packing for a fair or exposition requires planning. A planning I usually start (too) late ….

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News

Burgundian enjoyment, Ceramics Fair Maaseik 2019

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Sunday June 30th International Ceramics Fair Maaseik 2019. Over a 100 ceramic artists in the center of this historic city in Belgian Limburg. Who is coming? Many acquaintances from this frog country -as we say in the Netherlands-, and yes I also will be there.

It has been a few years when I participated in this ceramics fair. I am curious to see what will happen this time. The ambiance is always good and the organization by the municipality is, as usual, top notch!

Ceramics Market MaaseikDo you also want to enjoy contemporary ceramics in a historical Burgundian ambiance? Come visit!

Ceramics Fair Maaseik 2019
Sunday 30 June
9:00 to 17:00 hours
Markt (center) Maaseik
Access 2 euro (from 12 years)

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News

Art Route Drechterland 2019, welcome to Schellinkhout

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Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June, Art Route Drechterland 2019. Artists and guest exhibitors in the villages of Drechterland will open their workshops and/or exhibition space for you this weekend between 11am and 5pm.

Drechterland is located next to the city of Hoorn and South of the Marker Lake. The art route passes through the villages of Hoogkarspel, Westwoud, Venhuizen, Hem, Oosterleek, Wijdenes, Schellinkhout en Oosterblokker. You can make your own interactive bike or autoroute on the website of the art Route Drechterland.

Location of our exhibition together with Sigrid Verbruggen and Fredie Schenk is on  the Dorpsweg 126, Schellinkhout (location 7). The studio (and the beautiful sculpture garden) of Fredie is open and fitted for our exhibition of ceramics and paintings. A nice combination, a beautiful location and pleasant company:-) You don’t want to miss that….

Art Route Drechterland
Location 7
Weekend 15 and 16 June 2019
Studio of Fredie Schenk (FKS ceramics)
Dorpsweg 126, 1697 KH Schellinkhout
Opened both days from 11am – 5pm

Continue reading Art Route Drechterland 2019, welcome to Schellinkhout →