covet&ginger

Forever one of my favorite ceramic artists, Mushimegane Books. She has the ability to incorporate color into her work so naturally. Her pieces feel effortless-- they are intimate without overwhelming the senses. 

recent trip to iceland. 4/2018. 

Sarah Veak ceramics out of Kansas City, Missouri.

This woman is such an inspiration. Her shapes are so unique and her lines, delicate and tidy. I’m fearful of using color in my own palette-- Sarah uses it eloquently and tactfully. 

Her pots are reminiscent of mid-century vessels, but feel very contemporary. They’re rustic, reflective, calming, and I always look forward to seeing her new works. 

Photo day at Latourell Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.

New work from Spring, 2017. 

I’m trying to introduce color into my work. It’s incredibly difficult for me. In the past, I have relied heavily on neutral glazes to highlight the natural beauty and texture of unglazed clay. While this has been a staple feature of my work, I’m recognizing the appeal of an extended color palette so as to better accentuate shape, form, and clay itself. I always want to give the raw clay body a platform for appreciation. They can differ so much, and I think it’s important to see and recognize the skeletal system to which glaze fuses. It’s beautiful. I have a hard time covering it up. I’ve always felt I can’t properly provide the foundation for color, because I have always been too distracted by the honesty of clay. Everything else feels like overkill. But slowly, I will get there, and acknowledge color in my work, albeit in a calm and restricted sense, as I do feel it can be a helpful guide into appreciating the softness of porcelain, or the hardiness of stoneware.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how my work belies the core of me-- I am loud. I am outgoing. I am energetic. My work is everything else. It’s everything I need it to be. Calm. Soft. I never want it to be overt or obnoxious. 

Can we talk for a moment here about Lolo Kokochaka’s work? Unreal. It’s so vibrant and playful, and I’m so envious of how seamlessly she meshes color with shape. It’s something I struggle with a lot in my own work, and it is such an inspiration to see someone work so seemingly effortlessly between the two. She creates really nice, simple forms, enhanced by color scheme. Lolo appears to work predominantly by hand-building out of Copenhagen, Denmark.