Chris Gustin

Chris Gustin was born in Chicago in 1952 and went to the University of California studying biology and sociology. Because of his family business in working on several commercial ceramic manufacturing companies, he always had an interest in clay and realized that he wanted to continue to work in ceramics. In 1970, he quit school and became the factory foreman and manager at Wildwood ceramics. It wasn’t until 1972 that he went on to attend Kansas Art Institute and got his BFA in ceramics in 1975. Two years later he was invited to be an assistant professor in ceramics in Boston University and later became associate professor at the University of Massachusetts. He retired 1999 from teaching to fully devote himself to his studio work and tile production company “Gustin Ceramics Tile Production.”

His work is exhibited at several museums, including the Collection of the Currier Museum in Manchester, New Hampshire and the Collection of the Fuller Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts.

With his work, he aspires to create work that connect to the human figure and the personal touch of its maker; creating interesting asymmetrical and almost organic vessel. His work is meant to be explored, both with the eye and through touch that changes in different perspectives. He works with many different forms, including platters, teapots and vases. His platters are decorated with different abstract forms, some in which appear to lift up from the surface. His teapots and vases create an interesting form of abstractness, almost alluding to the collision of many different parts of vessels from throughout time. “The enormous ceramic vessels are beautiful and imposing,” said Kaizaad Kotwal, or the Columbus Dispatch. “Their scale, lyrical curves and detailed patinas are unique.” Gustin’s work is rather grand, sometimes measuring to 50 inches in width. Glen R. Brown describes his works “reflect an abstract logic of accretion that is only grasped by the viewer through a ‘rational’ assessment of the vessels’ structural properties. The balance between emotion and logic, gut reaction and reasoned response.” To see more of his work, visit his website here: http://www.gustinceramics.com/index.html and a link to Glen R. Brown’s article: http://www.gustinceramics.com/sculpture/Arts&Perceptionarticle/artsandperception.html

Elisa Helland-Hansen

Elisa Helland-Hanson was born in 1950 in New York but now resides in Bergen, Norway. Elisa began school at the Trondheim school of art which she attended for two years and then continued her education at the National College of Art and Design in Bergen, Norway and graduated from the ceramics department. She taught at HDK, Gothenburg University in Sweden and has visited Universities, including CU, as a visiting artist where she talked and has done workshops and has been a guest lecturer all over the world. Elisa works with ceramics and her focus for her work is domestic use and how they relationship between their function and form, color and surface, and her biggest challenge still is the works social and cultural context. http://www.kunst.no/elisa/info-eng.html


Elisa had her first of wood firing during a kiln building course at the National College of Art and Design. Her ceramic work is wood fired which she built in her studio after graduating and establishing her own studio. Her decision to work with wood firing was due to the success of the different results. With wood firing the results vary because the ash and different burning technique can add a different texture and color to the glazes. Most of her work is thrown on the wheel and altered after and on her pouring vessels and cups most of her handles are pulled strait from the body of work. When decorating her pots she uses many different techniques such as wax resist, slip and paper stencil, and over glazing. Her body of work has been many different exhibitions all over Europe with a few in the USA.

http://books.google.com/books?id=8OkXtdbOoJUC&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=elisa+helland-hansen+ceramics&source

All of her work is done in a stoneware or porcelain and is meant to be strong and durable so that the pieces can be functional and used in everyday activities. However, her use of the different decorating techniques that she uses on her work makes the aesthetic view of the domestic pieces seem much more delicate and valuable. She describes her work in “Song From My Pot” where each line describes that her work should be used, looked at, enjoyed, filled, touched, and more. Each pot that she makes definitely follows this and each one has a different look and feel and is enjoyable to look at.

Bernard Leach

Bernard Leach was born in 1887 in Hong Kong and went to the Slade School of Art in London, where he studied under Henry Tonks. However, he didn’t discover pottery until he attended a raku tea part in Tokyo, where guests were asked to decorate already fired raku pieces. It was here that Leach discovered his passion. (Prior to this tea party, Leach had studied etching and considered himself an etching artist). It was in Japan that he encountered a group of young Japanese art enthusiasts, called Shirakaba. Through this group, he was able to broaden his artistic horizons and shortly after, Leach began his ceramics career under the direction of Shigekichi Urano.

Leach’s first claim to fame was a book he published in 1940 called “A Potter’s Book”. This book is still considered a must read for any aspiring potter. He was an avid instructor of ceramics, believing anyone could learn to throw on the wheel. While schooling in Japan, became friends with another young potter named Shoji Hamada whom with he set up Leach Pottery at St. Ives, Cornwall in 1920. At this studio, he produced the pottery for which he became famous. This work consisted mainly of modest, functional forms with clean slip designs. Often the subjects of his designs are simplified or abstracted animal forms. This minimalist theme in his work is most likely pulled from his ceramic training in Japan, as well as his British heritage. Leach often saw his art as a conveyor between these two desperately different cultures.

The hand-painting aesthetic of Leach's slip designs allow the viewer to follow the artist's hand. One is able to physically see where the weight of the brush was heavy, and where it was lifted off. Despite this handmade quality, the designs are very crisp and clean, adding a professional and finished quality to Leach's work. My personal favorite piece by Leach is his 'Slipware Plate' (made around 1950), which features a an abstracted rabbit form. The contrast between the swooping and flowing quality of the rabbit's feet and ears really contrast with the rigid and geometrical crosshatched decoration around the outer ring of the plate. Also, this piece is a perfect example of Leach bridging British and Japanese aspects into his work. The outer rim and signed name are very reminiscent of Thomas Toft's (a famous English potter) style, while the rabbit form is resemblant of Japanese design.

Unfortunately, due to loss of sight, Leach had to stop producing work in 1972. However, he continued to publish writings about ceramics, even after he’d lost his eyesight. In 1977, the Victoria and Albert museum in London hosted a exhibition of his retrospective work. Bernard Leach died in 1979.

Hella Jongerius

Born in 1963 in the town of De Meern, in the Netherlands, Hella Jongerius is a Dutch designer who works with many different ceramic mediums. She studied industrial design at the Eindhoven Design Academy. Droog, an influential Dutch design collective, manufactured many of Jongerius’ early designs. From 1998-1999, Hella taught at the Design Academy in Eindhoven, where from 2000-2004 she served as head of the Department of Living/Atelier. In 2000 she founded the design studio JongeriusLab in Rotterdam where she creates, produces, and markets many of her designs such as dishware, vases, textiles, and furnishings. Hella’s work blurs the border between design and handicraft, or art and technology. In addition, she fuses traditional and contemporary influences through the use of high tech and low tech, as well as the industrial and artisanal themes. This juxtaposition is what distinguishes her style from other ceramic artists.

When she first became interested in art and design she started off studying carpentry. But, she came to the conclusion that carpentry was too much about “making” and not enough about creating the actual design of the object. Therefore, Hella looked to industrial design where she could deal with practical questions about work and life that bordered a profession, which was the inspiration for her work. The main theme of her work is her craft. Her goal is to find ways to make unique pieces from industrial processes and use archetypal forms through new techniques or materials. A reoccurring theme is the fusion of craftsmanship with industrialization. Much of her work deals with the relationship between modernity and traditionalism. Take this teapot (to the right) for example. The top portion of the teapot displays classical antiquity that expresses traditional elements. Whereas the cosey that encompasses the base of the pot is structured with a more industrial approach. There is a combination of craftsmanship, which is evident in the hand-made cosey, and a traditional element with the classical bust that sits atop the teapot. She tends to create a capsule that obtains information about stories and layers that add to her ceramic works.

Her work entitled Animal Bowls places greater emphasis on the manufacturers’ handcrafted products and shows the observer the numerous steps involved in finishing a product. What I love the most about this medium is the attention to detail. The animals that sit in the center of each vessel is oddly beautiful and precious in the sense that they are unexpected, but unusually functional. Both the “Unique Plates” and the bowls with animal figures are created exclusively by hand, not following defined patterns or matrices, but rather based on a system. Accordingly, no two plates are identical. They vary in size and depth and the marks left behind by the craftwork are made visible. This particular shape of the plate or the bowl is an archetypical concept that has existed for centuries and represents an attractive basis for a décor.

Reflecting on historical ceramic works, Hella creates Prince and Princess. Her choice was for two of the museum’s most highly regarded pieces: a 14th century copper-red vase from China and a 15th century cobalt blue Ming vase, which inspired her to design her Prince and Princess ceramic works. Decorative forms such as dragons and flowers on these vases were used to allow for a new pattern of openwork. Hella Jongerius translates the age-old under-glaze technique by perforating the walls in a specific decorative pattern. She then fills the holes with colored silicon rubber. In this way, the perforated vases are made waterproof.

As you can see, Hella produces a variety of works by different mediums through ceramics. It demonstrates the possibility of how far you can push a simple material like clay. Her work is extremely inspirational towards my work. I would love to emulate many of her techniques. I appreciate the simplicity of the majority of her work. She adds small, beautiful details that make her piece a gem in disguise.

Feel free to watch a YouTube video on Hella discussing her trials and tribulations of working chicle (a extremely new and challenging materials in the ceramics world). (click on "YouTube")

Warren Mackenzie

Warren Mackenzie was born February 16, 1924 in Kansas City, Missouri. His family moved near Chicago and Warren spent his childhood growing up in Evanston, Illinois. His parents tell him he was always interested in art, but never very good at it. When he graduated from high school he decided he would become a painter and he attended the Chicago Art Institute. In 1943, in the middle of his second year at school, Warren was drafted into the army and spent three years away. He returned home from the war expecting to continue his painting education but was met with completely full courses due to all the returning GI’s. Warren searched the course catalogue and found space in a ceramic course, so he registered. His first several months learning ceramics were uneventful and he wasn’t that interested, but that all changed the day he discovered A Potters Book, by Bernard leach. Leach talked about ceramics in a utilitarian manner saying such things like, “Any person should be able to make 50 pots easily in a day’s time,” and, “Any person should be able to throw a 15-inch-tall cylinder.” Warren was sparked by Leach’s philosophy and found himself sneaking into the ceramic studio on off days to try and do the things leach said he should be able to. Later Warren Mackenzie would study under Bernard Leach as his apprentice. Warren has been practicing his career in ceramics for nearly sixty years, and has always been focused on the functionality of his work. Mackenzie has described his goal as the making of "everyday" pots, although his work is found in major museums and goes for high prices among collectors. Warren makes pots with integrity; understated and comforting; his work is often described as warm and inviting to use, as simple, casual, and dignified. As decades have passed, MacKenzie's dedication has been unwavering. He tries to keep his prices within reach with the belief that having access too, and making use of handmade objects truly does add something to one's life especially in an ever increasing mechanized world. For a while Mackenzie sold his work through the honor system, where people could walk into his gallery and take a piece while leaving the money in a basket. At 86 years old Warren Mackenzie is still making pots although he suffers from silicosis or impaired lung function.