New Wave Clay: Ceramic Design, Art and Architecture

New Wave Clay: Ceramic Design, Art and Architecture

Throughout the twentieth century, ceramics was broadly divided into two sectors.<br />Studio pottery, which was a reaction against the mass-made<br />wares of the industrial<br />revolution, and fine art by contemporary artists, who just happened to<br />use clay in their practice but rejected many of its traditional codes of practice.<br />The unprecedented surge in popularity of ceramics in the last five years has<br />helped forge a new type of potter: the ceramic designer. Part-craftsman,<br />part designer,<br />they bridge ceramic craft, collectable design, and fine art. These ceramicists<br />include product designers who use clay as a means of creative expression,<br />and classically trained potters who create design-led<br />pieces, in addition to interior<br />decorators, illustrators, and graphic designers.<br />Their collective output includes furniture, decorative objects, murals, and<br />vessels: not art, not craft, but design. The ambition of the book is to show the diversity<br />of this area of creative production and the way in which history, craft,<br />technology, and design are all intersecting in the present day, creating a new type<br />of designer―and<br />a new type of ceramicist.<br />The book is divided into four thematic chapters and accompanied by written<br />contributions on the subject from designers, decorators, and collectors.