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Inspiration?


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Hello everybody.

 

First of all I'd like to introduce myself as I am new to this community. I have been taking pottery courses for the past 2 years trying to learn different throwing techniques. Eventually, I'd love to open my own studio but I'm not there yet :)

Anyway, I was wondering, who your favourite potters / ceramists were? I love discovering new talents (at least new to me) and I'm sure you know tons on artisans I've never heard of.
Also, do you take your inspiration only in pottery or just everywhere? I'm curious!

 

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Guest JBaymore

Inspiration comes from everywhere and anywhere ... certainly not limited to pottery.

 

Welcome to the forums.

 

Ditto what Chris said on inspiration for me...... but mostly it comes from my hands in clay.

 

best,

 

...................john

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I don't know if you've heard of this website http://www.potter.cm/ It looks like some kind of "social network" of potters and it looks that there is a great diversity of people posting their pictures. I always find inspiring things on there.

Thanks for your link Chris, there are some beautiful things indeed :)

John, I feel experimenting is the best way to get inspired, the problem being finding the time to try ^^

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For me I think it is like John, working in the clay leads to one thing that leads to another, then another, and so on. Some days I get inspiration from a twist I played with on a mug, and the same twist repeated on a jar, or a vase. Other days it could be the speed of the pull as opposed to the wheel speed, others the opposite. It all comes from working through a problem, and coming to a solution. It does not matter that the problem was one I posed.

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judith, thank you for www.potter.cm.  there are some really beautiful things on that site.  i cannot believe some of the delicate tracery in the porcelain work.  i am inspired.  i have to get over the unimaginative critic who is still in my mind from years ago.  i asked an "instructor" if she thought my dripping colored porcelain slip into a plaster cone mold would result in a delicate form (i could imagine) and she said "no".  so i didn't.  

 

i will now!

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It just comes out of the brain and clay somewhere.

Yesterday I went to the shed just after 9am to pug some reycled clay. It was a blend of terracotta and a white midfiring bodies. It came out a beautiful colour which I know fires to a beautiful soft peachy colour,, all subjective!

At 4.30pm I got up from the wheel with lots of ware and wear! The clay did it.

Late lunch, hot shower, busy head overnight,  and today I'm on the way to trim and turn.

Happier from the fasting!

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Thanks for the link Marcia.
Oldlady, I feel like experimenting is definitely the best. Even though some potter are satisfied with doing the same kind of things for years, if you feel like trying, you should :) I hope your tests will turn out well!

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Judith,

First of all, welcome to the conversation!  I hope you can add this forum as a new source of information and inspiration...I certainly have.

I wish I had Chris' discipline to gather a list of inspirational clay artists to share, but I don't  ;)   I do find myself exploring (books, magazines, web sites, galleries, shows, classes etc.)  a lot.  For me, that exploring  often turns to inspiration that results in a sketch...and I am an advocate of sketching.  I'd like to think that my sketches impact everything that I do once I get my hands into clay, but there is likely some original source/influence that I have to thank for the inspiration part.  I see that process of exploring-sketching-producing as how we are somehow all connected, whether that inspiration comes from a 900BC Peruvian potter or the latest emerging artist in Ceramics Monthly.

 

My best to you!

-Paul

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Anyone who goes to Europe may like to find a copy of Alexandria Copeland's book Ceramics Museums in Europe.
It is a great guide and includes places restaurants and accommodations in the areas.
She is a Majolica artist from Australia. She presented at the Majolica conference at the Gardener Museum in Toronto in 1999 or so. Sh does amazing work and the book is illustrated with her drawings. It is excellent.

Marcia

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Am naturally inspired heaps by other ceramic artists work but also by printmakers, papermakers, painters, sculptors, textiles, Japanese sand gardens, Ikabana flower arrangements, Korean tableware, Chinese calligraphy, Art Nouveau jewellery, beaches, water, pate de verre glass, plants, micro organisms, astronomy etc, etc...............it will be a colour, a shape, an approach to an unfamiliar medium, a concept, a social issue.....the choice is honestly diverse and limitless

 

I try and synthesise what I see, touch or feel into my own responsive interpretation using the ceramic and mixed media materials and processes that I love and think best express my response to that inspiration.

 

Without a broad curiosity, study and analysis of those things that inspire me I become creatively blocked, limited and repetitive..........horrible!!

 

Irene

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