Ceramics Monthly

10/04/2025

Working in a visual language of vibrant color and bold shapes, London-based ceramic artist Lubna Chowdhary creates bold sculptures, wall works, and public installations that resonate with pattern and intensity. Read more about her work in Tim Saunders article in the October 2025 issue. https://tinyurl.com/hzxesrf4

10/01/2025

On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene hit the mountains of Western North Carolina hard. This area is home to a thriving ceramics community, which was impacted deeply. Ceramic Arts Network set out to capture the stories of some of these artists and will premiere our documentary Picking up the Pieces: Resilience and Recovery in the Clay Community After Helene on October 14, 2025 at 6pm Eastern on Zoom. Some of the artists featured will be on hand for a discussion following the screening. The event is FREE to attend but will also feature a fundraiser to help the communities in their ongoing recovery efforts after the storm.
Sign up for free: https://tinyurl.com/4e3rpr6r

09/30/2025

The October 2025 issue is here! It can be found on our website and should arrive in homes shortly. This issue focuses on exhibitions. From making, to exhibiting, to viewing, the modes of engaging with ceramic art are many and each has its rewards. Click through for more: https://youtu.be/hTAZ2UzUmjQ. View the issue here: https://tinyurl.com/4ryehkhx If you are not currently a subscriber, click here: https://bit.ly/3rpw6ZE.
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Check out the issue here: https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/ceramics-monthly/Subscribe to Ceramics Monthly here: https://mycan.ceramicartsnetwork.org/s/product-...

09/29/2025

Today's Exposure feature comes from Courtney M. Leonard ()!

Courtney M. Leonard’s SUBSISTENCE Study 1, earthenware, 2017. “Making in Between: Indigenous Americans,” at the American Museum of Ceramic Art (www.amoca.org) in Pomona, California, through November 30. See this piece and work by many others that are in current exhibitions in the September 2025 Exposure section. https://tinyurl.com/2fhky3cx

09/26/2025

Are you having trouble with your kiln and it appears to be overfiring? Tired of troubleshooting? Turn to members of the Ceramic Arts Network Forum. Ask your questions, get some answers, and give some advice of your own. Join the conversation and the forum today!

Click through the link to join the community. https://tinyurl.com/9jj57e4a

09/26/2025

Gina Pisto (), one of our 2025 Emerging Artists, shared this with us: In my "portal" series, I combine floral and vegetal elements with motifs borrowed from still life painting such as animals, shells, and timepieces. When constructing these pieces, I build the base "frame" of the portal first and then compile my library of pieces that will eventually be attached to this base form. I use damp boxes in my studio to keep these individual pieces soft until I'm ready to attach them. I work to maintain an illusion of fullness or abundance in these works, so after building up my library of forms I attach everything to the base frame in one go. This allows the petals of flowers and individually sculpted leaves to bend and crease in a more naturalistic way without cracking or breaking.

I enjoy using recognizable forms as a way to lure in viewers and provide moments of discovery. There is a lot of visual information packed into each "portal," and I flatten some of the readability of this information by using a singular or minimal color palette. This allows the work to transcend the strictly mimetic and provide viewers an opportunity to see themselves reflected in the work, and consider how we may access memory through objects and collections. https://tinyurl.com/3bp6mzaj

09/24/2025

Sam McCall (), one of our 2025 Emerging Artists, shared this with us: I just finished up my first year of graduate school at Ohio University, where my current work investigates the way that materials, objects, and landscapes are utilized, changed, or developed through cycles of growth and decay. I’ve been exploring lots of variations of these ideas through handbuilt, wheel thrown, and press molded forms. These forms are often full of breath, providing a gestural quality. A large part of my research since getting to Athens has become centered around the local clay. I dig and process it to be used as an iron bearing clay in different clay bodies or slips. This direct engagement helps to situate my practice within a broader dialogue between material and place. https://tinyurl.com/mh7brn9t

09/22/2025

The latest Pottery Making Illustrated readership-wide contest submission portal is OPEN! Share how you alter your wheel-thrown or handbuilt functional objects to move beyond traditional vessel shapes and explore more expressive forms and designs. We want to see layered, more-is-more, opulence and how you accomplish it in your studio. Apply today at the link! https://tinyurl.com/3nykr44v

09/19/2025

Laura Dirksen (._studio), one of our 2025 Emerging Artists, shared this with us: While in grad school, I began sculpting representations of the bovine body, and gradually moved away from my large scale abstract compositions. In pivoting to the metaphorical surrogates in my work, they became incredibly playful, endearing and celebratory works of mixed media sculpture that allowed me to process the world through the narratives and materials I and my family navigated on our fluctuating production dairy farm growing up. Now, in a season of transition in my life, in my studio I lean heavily into this idea of mobility for these large animal frames I know. Such as cows in sneakers, or soaring through the sky with wings, and even wheels, fleeing from any responsibility and with great ease. I love seeing that these two types or making have begun to merge, the work feels fresh and has a breathability I’ve been after for some time. https://tinyurl.com/2d5fyxjb

09/18/2025

Marie-Joël Turgeon and Jordan Lentink () established a café-boutique and pottery studio in Bedford, Quebec. In order to streamline processes and meet demand, they utilize slip casting and jigger-jollying in creating minimal, hearty vessels. Read more from Lysanne Larose’s article “Atelier Tréma: The Road to Serendipity,” through the link. https://tinyurl.com/2s3xc7fy

09/16/2025

Jaden Estes Carlson (), one of our 2025 Emerging Artists, shared this with us: My work explores how pattern interacts with clay, drawing on textile and tile traditions that both comfort and constrain. I’m fascinated by how pattern, so mathematical and rigid in concept, becomes fluid and shifting when applied to fabric and, in turn, to my ceramic forms. By leaving texture and marks visible, I make the process part of the story, a reflection on transformation, tension, and the cycles we inherit. Read more through the link. https://tinyurl.com/yz2cj4z4