Category Archives: Opinion

Opinion

Raging Farmers Dancing on Raeren Stoneware

Leave a comment

The raging farmers dance, the farmers dance on Raeren stoneware pottery.

“WER SIN HOEPT WILT HALDEN GANSZ, LAS DEN HVNDEN ER BRVLVEFT ENDE DEI BVREN EREN DANSZ”

“Whoever wants to keep his head whole perchance, let the dogs have their wedding and the farmers their dance” (Raeren proverb 16th century)

Relief negative "der Bauerntanz" (pottery museum Raren)
Relief negative “der Bauerntanz” (pottery museum Raeren)

Raeren potters from the 16th century already warn us about the raging farmers during their dance. Let them run wild, let them dance. Even though it’s a dance on the volcano…

Continue reading Raging Farmers Dancing on Raeren Stoneware →
Opinion, Personally

Handmade ceramics: Why are you doing this to yourself?

Leave a comment

Why do you start with handmade ceramics? What is handmade ceramics? When is something handmade? Is it art, is it design, is it craft?

Questions I had when I started making ceramics myself. But these are also the questions of the ceramics collector. And whoever has questions must look for answers!

It has been about 30 years since I took my first ceramics out of the kiln (burning my hands, because I couldn’t wait for it to cool down completely). Do I have all the answers by now?

Okay spoiler alert, I don’t … but I can give you my thoughts about it.

Continue reading Handmade ceramics: Why are you doing this to yourself? →
Opinion, Personally

From Clay to Cash, Make Quick Money with Ceramics

2 Comments

From clay to cash is the trick of the trade …. the potter’s secret. Converting ceramics into hard currency is of course the goal of every potter. That’s nothing new.

But the secret how to convert porcelain directly into dough, was sent to me a few weeks ago by a reader of this blog. How can ceramists convert their clay into stone cold cash?

I’ve decided to share with you the rise of the ceramcoins. Fast money for all potter’s in need, ceramic emergency money.

In the international art trade, they do the same, but on a much larger scale…

Continue reading From Clay to Cash, Make Quick Money with Ceramics →
Glaze, News, Opinion, Technique

The best ceramic glaze book of the year

Leave a comment

What is the best ceramic glaze book of this year? If you ask me, that’s “Special Effect Glazes” by Linda Bloomfield. This is the first book that explains how to analyze (special) glazes using the UMF and plotting it on the Stull Chart. The author also explains how you can do this easily: by using Glazy.org.

This is the modern way to discover the “mechanism” behind the glaze. In other words “what makes this glaze tick“. She is not the first to analyze glazes in this way. Matt Katz of Ceramic Materials Workshop in particular is the driving force behind this contemporary view. But he hasn’t (yet) written a book about it.

Ceramic Glazes Test Tiles 2

In short, as far as I am concerned , this is the book to show 21st century ceramists the way to that new manner of discovering ceramic glazes.

Continue reading The best ceramic glaze book of the year →
Opinion, Personally

Glaze Chemistry is the Cure when Reality Stops

Leave a comment

I love glaze chemistry. The chemistry of ceramics. The chemistry of life. The chemistry of art. The chemistry between people. I love glazes. I love ceramists. I love the discussion.

Is it UMF or Segerformula? Is mole percentage, WPF or phase diagram the key to unraveling the glaze mechanisms? Looking for glaze limits or for target recipes? Does this glaze crystallize because of too little Al2O3 or too much SiO2?

The discussion is going on, tempers are running high, some are dropping out. There is a search in books and experience is looked at. Someone finds a clue, the other rejects it.

Eventually, someone will fire the glaze. The result is shared. Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. We’ll apply it. We’re adapting. This is reality.

But what happens when reality stops?

Continue reading Glaze Chemistry is the Cure when Reality Stops →
Opinion

Fighting for a Modern Ceramics tradition

Leave a comment

The modern ceramics tradition is spreading. In the eye of the storm, its path is difficult to fathom. And I feel in the mids of today’s ceramics storm. But despite the fact that my hair has been blown before my eyes, I see a new wind direction emerging. A new course that I think is worth fighting for.

Handmade cup leather hard

The new capital is the shared knowledge, worldwide. New groups unite around digital platforms such as FB, Insta, linkedIn, as well as specific sites for potters such as glazy.org. In these kinds of environments, knowledge is shared, opinions are cast and discussions are held.

In other words, culture is created. A new tradition is developing, not along bounderies of location, land borders or a supposed shared history. A new ceramics tradition: you may think so, but why would you fight?

Continue reading Fighting for a Modern Ceramics tradition →
Opinion

Improve your ceramics: take a graphic course

Leave a comment

Taking a graphic course is not a luxury for today’s ceramic artist, but a must. In this digital world, modern graphic techniques are necessary “know how“. And not only for typographers, (web) designers and other graphic designers, but for all creatives, including blogging ceramists like me.

A photo on Insta or FB, a logo or an info-graphic for a website, everything must first be designed or edited digitally. The possibilities are endless and the tools are constantly changing. I hardly saw the the forest for the trees.

Graphic Course - Basic Course IllustratorLuckily I came across the platform graphic courses a few weeks ago. A teachers initiative from the graphic sector. They offer graphic training on various software packages, such as Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, but also WordPress, MailChimp and more.

It’s a guild of graphic designers. Makers like me, but experts in contemporary graphic design. I was invited by Angelo Spiler to follow one of their top courses.

A fun and educational experience… and not only for digital design, but also for making ceramics.

Continue reading Improve your ceramics: take a graphic course →

Opinion, Personally

Don’t panic: Online Ceramics and the Coronavirus

2 Comments

The coronavirus has taken over the world, including that of online ceramics. My mailbox is overflowing with cancellations. In the US, the international ceramics festival NCECA has been cancelled, many museums in Europe are closed and cultural life has also been paused in my neck of the woods, the Netherlands.

I find it a strange sensation, when I wake up I hear the birds singing in the garden. The dunnock  is whistling at the top of his lungs until he is chased away by a screaming robin. The blackbird does not bother and  cheerfully sings uninterrupted on top of my roof. Spring has begun!

No Panic Galactic AdviceBut the streets are quiet, the shelves empty in the supermarket. I notice that it also influenced my work ethics.. and not in a good way.

How do you break from this negative spiral? Just go back to work and follow transgalactic advice!

Continue reading Don’t panic: Online Ceramics and the Coronavirus →

Clay, Glaze, Opinion, Technique

Commercial glazes, pushing product

2 Comments

This week a blog about a new book by Deanna Ranlett “Off the Shelf, outside the Box”.

Off the Shelf/outside the Box: A Guide to experimenting with Commercial clays, glazes, & UnderglazesI fasten my bike on the Bloemgracht, Amsterdam. On the corner I can score at my dealer, in an old building with a nice glass facade. I step in, my heart rate accelerates, my blood pressure rises. I can’t pull my eyes from all the mysterious powders in many colors on the shelves. Here dreams are fulfilled.

It was in the early years 90 of the last century. And no, it wasn’t a “headshop” where I went in. It was the old shop of Ve-Ka in Amsterdam. Of these powders you do not hallucinate, but you will be happy…… when it is fired in a ceramic kiln.

Continue reading Commercial glazes, pushing product →

Inspiration, Opinion, Personally

Wabi-Sabi Ceramics: imperfection as a beauty ideal

Leave a comment

Wabi-sabi is a beauty of things imperfect,
impermanent and incomplete
It is a beauty of things modest and humble
It is a beauty of things unconventional
(Leonard Koren)

This is the intriguing introduction to Leonard Koren’s book “Wabi-sabi for artists, designers, poets & philosophers“. He introduced the term “Wabi-Sabi” in 1994. But the roots of this concept are much older. Its origins lies in Chinese Taoism and Zen Buddhism. Koren describes the Japanese aesthetics in art, literature, poetry and wisdom of life. From its growth in the 15th century until now.

Wabi-Sabi, imperfection is beauty

The first description of these aesthetic values from Japanese culture, is by Japanese auteur Kakuzo Okakura. In an attempt to close the gap between the aesthetic values of the east and the west, he wrote “The Book of Tea” published in 1906. Because he wrote it directly in English he made it accessible to Western readers who can’t read Japanese.

Where the West strives for greatness, perfection and the denial of decay, Wabi-Sabi embraces the human measure, the irreversible and the cycle of all that lives. This concept of life has not only much to offer the ceramist.

Continue reading Wabi-Sabi Ceramics: imperfection as a beauty ideal →
Inspiration, Opinion, Personally

Ceramix Ceramic Art in the 20th and 21st Century

Leave a comment

Until 31 January 2016 the exhibition “Ceramix, Ceramics in Art from Rodin to Schütte” runs in the Bonnefantemuseum in Maastricht.

View ceramic art

Ceramix tells the story of ceramic art from the beginning of the last century to the present day through more than 250 works of art. In the spring of 2016, this exhibition will travel to Paris and Sèvres.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the Bonnefante Museum. A great experience. If you haven’t been there yet: grab your chance, it’s a unique exhibition not to be missed.

Continue reading Ceramix Ceramic Art in the 20th and 21st Century →
Opinion

Battle of the Potters: The Great Pottery Throw Down

Leave a comment

“The Great Pottery Throw Down” has been broadcasting on BBC Two for a few weeks now. A competition of ten potters competing in Stoke-on-Trent, the center of English ceramics, for the honorary title “Great Britain’s top potter”. Every week there is one winner and the curtain falls for another participant.

You probably guessed it by now, this series is a lot like “The Great British Bake Off”, but with clay. Is it worth to watch it?

Continue reading Battle of the Potters: The Great Pottery Throw Down →