22 August 2012

BLUE AND WHITE CERAMICS AND THE MYTH OF THE PEASANT POTTER

I'm about to go to Italy, where I'll be visiting the International Museum of Ceramics in Faenza, which claims to have the largest collection of ceramics in the world.  I've never been there before and it will be fascinating to compare it to the ceramics gallery of the V&A, which I know well.

After writing my post on cobalt blue, I realized that I'd omitted to mention Nigel Wood's work on blue-and-white ceramics, of which he is making a special study, researching the uses of cobalt ores throughout history in the fine and applied arts.  He describes Chinese blue and white ceramics as the most influential ceramics in the world and says that it's hard to find any country that doesn't have blue and white ceramics from China.

17 August 2012

JUST PRICE, THE MACHINE AND THE MAKER

I'm preparing a talk for the News From Nowhere Club next  month and I've been reading Michael Cardew's chapters in Pioneer Pottery on price and product.  I'd forgotten what good sense he talked.

8 August 2012

COBALT BLUE: NOT QUITE MONOCHROME



I'm repeatedly drawn to decorating only in cobalt blue. It's not exactly monochrome decoration because of the variation in tone you can get with it, but it's mono-pigment.