Jennifer Allen

Jennifer Allen is a functional ceramic artist who uses mainly porcelain clay. Her style and choice of surface treatments, expresses a subtle defiant element to her work. I am always stunned by the beautiful shapes she is able to achieve while still maintaining an expert level of craftsmanship. The shape of her pieces always seems to be enhanced by the style surface treatment she chooses. I normally find a balance between body and surface has been hard to achieve, so I think her work is truly inspiring.

Lids

When your considering how to make lids for a piece I think one of the strongest things to consider is how it will aesthetically enhance your work while remaining cohesive. It can either be the main focus to your work or just a simple functional element. My experience with lidded vessels has taught me that how you want your audience to handle the lid may change how you decide you want it to function. Your design choices will determine if it's just an object that will sit on your shelf as artwork, or if it becomes one of your favorite jars to use in the kitchen. 

Handles

For awhile I have been interested in ways i can design creatively functional handles. My biggest concern is the way it feels in a person's hand when they are using it, since my main purpose is producing functional work. I want to explore ways I can change basic handle shapes that allow me to achieve a unique, signature appeal.

French Montieres Pottery Vase

Nick Mackman

This ceramic artist takes a different approach to producing sculptural animal forms. She utilizes the application of mixed media, to achieve a very realistic look in her piece through using hair and staining techniques. I feel like I have insight into the way these animals lived and watching a part of their lives when I look at these scultpures. Nick Mackman lives in England where she continues to make sculptural work today.

Beth Cavener

Beth Cavener produces large highly detailed sculptures depicting various animals and exaggerates them in ways that reflect on the uncomfortable aspects of human nature. These sculptures remind me of the unavoidable animal instinct that people sometimes feel. We are confronted with these thoughts, in a way that makes me want to better understand the relation between the behaviors we can and can not control. 

Vincent Massey

Vincent Massey is a functional potter who discovered his passion for ceramics at an early age. His life experience has given him a strong foundation for his pottery. He often throws his pieces on a wheel and uses carving techniques. He specializes in making dinnerware sets and other large serving pieces.

Jason Bige Burnett

Paper flower cups

Jason Burnett works as a studio artist in North Carolina. He focuses on functional pottery, and has done several collaborative pieces with other artists. These cups were made using a paper resist technique, that he uses to create a fresh appeal in his work.

Mayumi Yamashita

Mayumi Yamashita makes sculptural ceramics to communicate her thoughts on humanity and its curious nature. She uses her work to try and relay the concept of people as a community living, working, and effecting each other as a whole. Her ceramic art reasserts this common notion in an enjoyable fresh way.

Inspiration in Nature

Kate Malone is a ceramic artist who uses inspiration directly from nature in order to produce her style of ceramic art. Her pottery often relates the literal form found in nature, that is exaggerated in some way to capture the unique natural form produced the natures process of evolution.

Eva Hild

Eva Hild makes large ceramic and metal sculptures. I really enjoy how the shape of the body relates to the negative space around it. The shadows created by the form add even more depth to her sculptures. She hand builds her ceramic sculptures and uses sanding techniques to achieve the strong supportive thin walls. 

Johnson Tsang

Johnson Tsang is a ceramic artist from Hong Kong who challenges conception by bending realistic art in a creative playful way. He uses clay to capture a single moment in time and change it in a way that lets the viewer see the beauty in that moment, and how complex and beautiful it can really be .

Square Serving Plate

Silvia Granatelli designs functional pottery to create certain moods while they are being used. She focuses on the aspect of hospitality, while exploring the relationship between serving and being served food. Her belief, is that available food in an area has a strong dictation over culture and traditions. Granatelli focuses her work on this thought, and wishes to emphasize the notion of these traditions through her pottery.

Cup Forms

Cups By Paula Lopez-Otero

    

Mug by Jan Stackhouse

I want to make a set of four cups specifically meant for dipping delicious cookies into ice-cold milk! These cups will have a hand crafted feel, but I am still on the search for a perfect mold to make them. I am inspired by these two artists, and the forms they achieved in their pieces. I want the cups I am making to be more about the act of using them rather than them being visually striking. I think Jan Stackhouse and Paula Lopez-Otero achieve this notion.

Cookie Jars!

I am exploring various basic forms of cookie jars for my final project. A few trends I have noticed is  most forms have an opening wide enough to get a fist full of cookies out of! I think this is an important functional feature I need to incorporate in my own jar. They have receded foots with a base that meets the table. This is where I would like to deviate from the traditional jars. Adding a decorative foot will tie the jar into the other pieces in my final project set and hopefully will not distract from the form of the jar.

Steven Roberts

Steven Roberts is a ceramic artist who chooses to focus on utilitarian pottery. This piece entitled Pink Bowl made in 2008, is soda fired and made in porcelain. I think the choice of glaze emphasizes the subtle textures giving it a more sculptural aspect. However, it still maintains the overall appearance of being functional.