Thursday, January 22, 2009

Ceramic Arts Daily

I'm excited to say that I have a project posted on the Ceramic Arts Daily site, which is run by the Potter's Council. It's an instructional article describing how to make a "quilted" wall piece (very similar to this posting). It was fun to think very specifically about how to construct these pieces, and then put it into words. There will be an article in Pottery Making Illustrated coming up in their next issue with an extended version of this project including glazing.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Happy new year (a bit late!)

Apologies for the late greetings, I hope this finds everyone refreshed and energetic for a new year. 2008 was a particularly momentous one for the Sanders' clan and there there pottery. I will reflect on this soon in a future posting.

For now, I wanted to share about a recent trip that Guthrie and I took to the Mint Museum here in Charlotte. What better way to start the new year than visiting an amazing collection of ceramics at museum right in the back yard (or, 12 minutes away, but who's counting?)? One of their recent exhibits features women in ceramics from 1875-1945. There were some sweet pieces, but I wish they had shown more. Here are a couple of my favorites from the exhibit: a sculpture of acrobats, a sweet little carved lidded piece, and a delicately painted porcelain vase (and a nice wedgewood platter from their permanent collection). Sorry the images are a bit fuzzy, I had to fight little hands grabbing at the camera the entire time.
Another exhibit displayed haute couture fashions from 1947-2007. There were some incredible (and ridiculous!) pieces. The wall of shoes caught my eye. I think I may invest in a pair of those high top sneaker stilettos. Kristin Kieffer's work came to mind while observing this exhibit. I love the scallops on the black dress and can clearly see this influence in her work.
The big draw exhibit currently on display was Andy Warhol. Guthrie responded to these pieces the most; I'm guessing the bright colors caught his eye. The piece on the left interested me the most: one of a series of prints of "details of the renaissance."