Morley College 19 Book Review Making Pinch Pots 29 -30 Book Review

from Emerging Potters magazine - October to December 2021

Contemporary British Ceramics 31

Jane Wilson

These pieces are inspired by close observation of the vivid green leaves of early spring. Folding the slabs or piercing the walls of the vessels with pins creates contrasting textures on the different sides of the clay just as leaves show a subtle difference in form, colour and texture on their tops and undersides.

@janewilsonceramics

Book Review Making Pinch Pots

By Jacqui Atkin Published by Search Press UK price £14.99 ISBN 978-1-78221-996-5 www.searchpress.com

This lavish book has 35 beautiful projects using hand-formed pieces. Each project is illustrated with step-by-step sequences. The result is a series of ideas which only uses a pinching technique and is not dependent on throwing on the wheel.

For those starting pottery for the first time or returning after many years it offers a variety of projects with helpful tips on tools, which clay, design notes and decoration guides. For anyone with a movement disability it is truly and table-top way of making things. It is often an introduction to pottery for children.

Jacqui Atkin is very well known as a writer and maker. She comments in the book, “ …mastering pinching will teach the best tactile sensitivity of all the making methods. It is a methodical way of working that allows the individual to make adjustments but gives the best control over he clay. Of course, it takes practice to make something of refinement, but once mastered it is possible to make wonderful, innovative forms for practical or decorative use that rival anything made by other methods, even those on the wheel”.

Book Review: Contemporary British Ceramics

By Ashley Thorpe

ISBN: 9781785008887 Width: 215mm Height: 280mm Pages: 208 Published: 27/09/2021 by The Crowood Press Price: £30.00 www.crowood.com

Ceramics is one of the most vibrant and engaging fields of contemporary British art. This lavishly illustrated book reviews the work of twenty-two artists and celebrates their contribution to its rich landscape. Written from a collector’s point of view, it explores what contemporary ceramic objects can mean, what emotions they evoke and how artists draw upon different facets of the art and crafts worlds in their work. A vital visual and critical resource, Contemporary British Ceramics showcases British ceramics as a compelling interdisciplinary practice, attuned to the contemporary world. Featuring more than 280 images, it encourages readers to look beneath the surface, to discover the vibrant contribution that British ceramics makes to the broad field of contemporary art.

Ashley Thorpe is a collector of ceramics, writer, playwright, performer and academic. Having seriously collected contemporary British studio ceramics for over fifteen years, he has extensive knowledge of the field. Featuring the work of: Richard Slee Alison Britton Jennifer Lee Carol McNicoll Sara Radstone Pam Su Benjamin Pearey Aneta Regal Nathan Mullis Mella Shaw Tessa Eastman Annie Turner Henry Pim Martin Smith Aphra O’Connor Patricia Volk Ken Eastman Nao Matsunaga Sam Lucas Elena Gileva Connor Coulston Neil Brownsword

Emerging Potters – 25 Book Review: Contemporary

British Ceramics

In the book Thorpe comments, “I want this volume to follow the educational approach. This proposes that if artists trained at the same institution, perhaps under the same teacher, it follows that their work must be broadly similar. Not everyone who studied ceramics at Camberwell, the Royal College of Art, or wherever else, produces work according to the same aesthetic ideals. This is not to say that artistic genealogy does not have its place. There can, however, be an over-emphasis on education as the primary determinant. In saying all this, I am not anti-theory, or anti-history. It is simply that, in this volume, I have sought to approach contemporary ceramics in Britain in a slightly different way” .