Raku ware is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremonies, most often in the form of chawan tea bowls. It is traditionally characterised by being hand-shaped rather than thrown, fairly porous vessels, which result from low firing temperatures, lead glazes and the removal of pieces from the kiln while still glowing hot. In the traditional Japanese process, the fired raku piece is removed from the hot kiln and is allowed to cool in the open air.
Paul Soldner was an American ceramic artist, noted for his experimentation with the 16th-century Japanese technique called raku, introducing new methods of firing and post firing, which became known as American Raku.
A saggar is a type of kiln furniture. It is a ceramic boxlike container used in the firing of pottery to enclose or protect ware being fired inside a kiln. Traditionally, saggars were made primarily from fireclay. Saggars have been used to protect, or safeguard, ware from open flame, smoke, gases and kiln debris: the name may be a contraction of the word safeguard. Their use is widespread, including in China, Korea, Japan and the United Kingdom. Saggars are still used in the production of ceramics to shield ware from the direct contact of flames and from damage by kiln debris. Modern saggars are made of alumina ceramic, cordierite ceramic, mullite ceramic silicon carbide and in special cases from zirconia.
Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves. Studio pottery includes functional wares such as tableware and cookware, and non-functional wares such as sculpture. Studio potters can be referred to as ceramic artists, ceramists, ceramicists or as an artist who uses clay as a medium. Much studio pottery is tableware or cookware, but an increasing number of studio potters produce non-functional or sculptural items. In Britain since the 1980s, there has been a distinct trend away from functional pottery, for example, the work of artist Grayson Perry. Some studio potters now prefer to call themselves ceramic artists, ceramists or simply artists. Studio pottery is represented by potters all over the world and has strong roots in Britain. Art pottery is a related term, used by many potteries from about the 1870s onwards, in Britain and America; it tends to cover larger workshops, where there is a designer supervising the production of skilled workers who may have input into the pieces made. The heyday of British and American art pottery was about 1880 to 1940.
Michael Ambrose Cardew (1901–1983), was an English studio potter who worked in West Africa for twenty years.
David Andrew Leach OBE was an English studio potter and the elder son of Bernard Leach and Muriel Hoyle Leach, Bernard's first wife.
Steven Kemenyffy is an American ceramic artist living and working in Pennsylvania. He is most recognized for his contributions to the development of the American ceramic raku tradition. He has served as a Professor of Ceramic Art at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania since 1969. He Has retired from teaching, but continues to produce artwork at his home studio in McKean, Pennsylvania.
Frank Wilfred Vining was an influential teacher of pottery who founded and, for over thirty years, led the ceramics course at Cardiff College of Art.
Mary Wondrausch was an English artist, potter, historian and writer, born in Chelsea. She trained as a potter at Farnham School of Art, latterly West Surrey College of Art and Design.
Lisa Hammond is a British studio potter. She is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association of Britain. She has specialised in vapour glazing since leaving college, first using salt and, since the early 1980s, soda glaze. She produces a range of functional ware for the preparation, cooking and serving of food. Alongside functional ware, she makes a range of work that she describes as "individual and playful".
Clive Bowen is described "as a gestural decorator, even something of an action painter, applying a fluid spontaneity and broad hand to his trailing, pouring and combing. Seeing his pots in groups - runs of splendid jugs, bowls, platters and press-moulded dishes - reveals Bowen's ability to explore within the parameters of his signature forms."
Tim Andrews is an English studio potter making distinctive smoke-fired and raku ceramics exhibited internationally.
Joan Ruth Campbell MBE (1925–1997) was a Victorian born potter/ceramic artist.
Kevin Petrie is a practicing artist, author, and Professor of Glass and Ceramics at The National Glass Centre, University of Sunderland.
Jack Doherty is a Northern Irish studio potter and author. He is perhaps best known for his vessels made of soda-fired porcelain. He has been featured in a number of books, and his work has been exhibited widely in both Europe and North America. Articles of his have appeared in various pottery journals and he has been Chair of the Craft Potters Association.
Philip (Phil) Rogers is a Welsh studio potter who has been featured in a number of books on studio pottery and has worked at Lower Cefnfaes Farm's Marston Pottery since 1984 and previously in Rhayader, Powys, Wales, from 1978 to 1984.
Richard Godfrey was an English studio potter working in Battisborough Cross, Devon England.
Nic Collins is a woodfire potter that works in Devon, on the edge of Dartmoor.
The Coxwold Pottery was a pottery studio based in the village of Coxwold, North Yorkshire, launched by artist potters Peter and Jill Dick in 1965, and in operation until 2012.
5. "Ceramics Art and Perception" Issue 14 p. 87
