Form building

Still unloading the mental bank from traveling this summer. The Cooper Hewitt is always a provocative stop for me. I wrote down in my notebook about these amazing "Lego like" pottery pieces by Dutch Phenom-Ineke Hans.
Designed as components to suit the function they are a formal dream.....

Building friends

ICFF this year is turning out to be like the High School reniuon you did not go to because you did not lose those 20 pounds. So many people that I have meet through Chairs and Buildings will be there. I got an announcement from Elodie Blanchard saying that she will have "large things,small things,to hang, to carry, to remember.." I love that you can see the way she thinks in her work. She is sitting in her studio, she thinks-"there are millions of rubber bands in the world-let's make something more special than just rubbers bands".......and so a bowl is born-

Local building

I really love the process of this ceramic work that has come out of Atelier NL. Principal Nadine Sterk aspires to serving a meal on the earthenware and have the vegetables be from the same local.......Now that's discipline....

Building adorable white.......

This work made me smile......ceramic work by Jorine Oosterhoff from the Netherlands. The idea of white shines through.

Building lots of color

I am very much reacting to my moody hip hotel in NYC....lights too low as was furniture and mood. I found these images as an antidote. respectively-roche bobois Mah_Jong sofa, Diana Fayt ceramics, and Christien Meindertsma poufs.....

Building Black

I am in Biloxi for the day and I got to pop into the George Ohr Museum Fall Festival of the Arts. For those of you that enjoy artisan pottery this is Mecca. I acquired two pieces from Bill and Pamela Clark of
Clarkhouse Pottery in Greenville, South Carolina. Beautiful matt black glazes and I found my perfect orange egg, or did it find me?

building fossils....

I will finish up the ceramic series with this beautiful piece by Maggie Wells. Wells is now represented at Karkula in Manhattan.

Building the fantastic

Okay, I admit it I have the "I wants". These amazing ceramic tiles by Ashville artist Heather Knight caught my eye this weekend and I am hooked....... I like the idea of a don't touch part of the bath and such a surprise coming out of a field of dumpy subway tile.......

How function is built.

The most beloved functional pottery for me is the work from Bennington Potters in Vermont. Started in 1949 work out of the Potters Yard has been a staple of all good new england modernist households. The white series is the group to covet.

The form builder

I would assume that Wouter Dam is the most adventurous ceramicist working currently...to have the bravado not to make a secure vessel...and revel in the shape making that Richard Serra and Frank Gehry wish for. Not to mention the color. I could look at this work all day.

Building form for a week

I wanted to do a ceramics series since its summer and I am in between projects and studios. The grandfather of modernist pottery is Georges Jouve. In a modernist decorative arts store you will see a Prouve piece and Mouille Lamp and a ceramic piece by Jouve all done in Paris in the 50's. I love this cylinder shape because I now know that a 6" tall cylinder is one of the first acts to master on a potters wheel. See Patrick Seguin's web site for the greatest hits of French modernism

The shape of building

When we were at The Birmingham Museum along a long row of not very good pieces of ceramic was a very tiny basalt tea cup. Imagine my surprise when the description card said the piece was by James Turrell. Evidently in the 90's Turrell worked with the British Wedgewood company and produced a series of ceramics that embraced the Wedgewood tradition.....Such a nice moment looking at that very delicate tea cup.

Form building....

I came upon the work of Stacie Andrews last weekend as she was preparing her work space for all things ART here in Starkville. Stacie's modest work illustrates the Mississppi tradition of clarity in ceramics and adds a little Victorian lady humor with her form. I bought a beautiful bowl that now stands next to the Shearwater vase and a Japanese factory piece.

building new form.....

Now if I were traveling in Greece, I would make my friend Costas take me to this young man's studio. Giannis Mamoutzis is leading the charge in the new modern ceramics. I saw his work at Yatzer and I will save for the trip to Greece and the trip to his studio- to take a piece home.

Building glaze....

The most beautiful modern pottery I have seen is the work of British artist Edmund de Waal. His web site is a feast of restraint and I see that there is a book that he has written about the great Bernard Leach and the tradition behind him. de Waal penned the book-Rethinking Bernard Leach: Studio Pottery and Contemporary Ceramics.

Building in Clay 2

The real mission for being on the coast was to go to Shearwater Pottery in Ocean Springs. A Mississippi Landmark the studio and showroom have been reconstructed after the storm and back better than ever. I had saved for two pieces in a beautiful butter color. The pieces are very affordable and are a hallmark of modernist pottery tradition. Call 228-875-7320 for very good directions.

Building Clay....

We had a wild and woolly trip down to the coast and got to meet many a fine person and saw some great design. First- from now on once you hit Biloxi you must visit the George Ohr museum. In mid- construction due to the hurricane damage the Frank Gehry Pods are a great architectural event. He finally got up to Richard Serra. Ohr's work can be viewed at a temporary location and then the fun begins....

Building Vessels

I got an e-mail from Elodie Blanchard announcing her new web site for Elastico. I have shown Elodie work before and remain transfixed by her versatility and imagination. She has some terrific projects in her online store and boy do I love these vases made of rubber bands coated in rubber...talk about "use what you have" design.

Building Form

We popped over to Birmingham today to run some errands, Whole foods, new ballet shoes,etc. We went to the Birmingham Museum of Art and were very impressed. We got to see a beautiful Sargent painting since we miss visiting Madame X at the Met and they have a great show of 1950's German modernist production pottery. It's called a New Twist: German Pottery from the 1950"s. It is a collection of 60 vases from a private collection of a resident of Birmingham. My imagination is going wild thinking what great people could have loved such interesting work and put a collection together. If your in the area its a must see.

Atlanta Loop...focus

Atlanta does have an Ikea and yes that is a major draw for us when we go. We even book a hotel that is walking distance. I went to get more "stuff" for Little Building but I did indulge in what I refer to as "my collection of production pottery". Do you think anyone can guess.? I was pretty happy with these.