Claudia Rankin Ceramics

Claudia Rankin ceramics. Whimsical or juvenile? You decide.May make for a nice Christmas gift though.

Price on Request

Apparently, you can take silicone, put it in a container, add mineral spirits, stir it up until it turns into a "slurry" to form a not-so-runny liquid-like substance. You can then paint the liquid onto nylon with a brush to get a taut outcome.  I suppose prior to the drying of the nylon it is pliable enough for an artist to massage, mold and form into something mesmerizing. I think this is what the artist Michael Eden has done.

I went on the hunt over the weekend to find some unusual contemporary art.  I like that the works that I found used unusual methods---that is to say, science was used to create art.

I do love collecting vessels. I have said so on the blog before. I also love ceramics. 

But I simply dread them breaking. And so I think that the artist Hiroshi Suzuki seems to have proffered a scientific solution to my problem while maintaining the necessary textural, pretty, sinuous, curvaceousness you would want in a good contemporary piece of pottery.

Suzuki's method is to hammer-raise and chase enameled silver. 

You love it don't you? Clever, yes? The question is what does it cost? Do you get the feeling that when the sticker reads "price upon request" what the seller really wants to tell you is "don't worry you can't afford it"?

All these beautiful vessels and vessel-like objects are at Adrian Sassoon.

Textural Ceramics: Axel Salto

Danish. Vintage. Free form, sometimes imagined in the shape of fruits or elements of other life-like forms. The textures take the shape of scales, ribs, buds, waves, fruit peels and raised lines.

Most of the pieces date from the 1920s to the mid 1960s and can command an average price of around 13, 000 USD.

I'd say keep your eye out for similar textural and free form ceramics from the 1960s. They are in demand at the moment.

For the Love of Pottery: Shio Kusaka

I was browsing the Wall Street Journal one day and came across a sort of exposition piece on two artists who are married to each other. I was instantly interested in the work of one of the artists--Shio Kusaka. I love all kinds of pottery. But the work above and below must be seen as elevated pottery, no? It's like having double the art-- the paintings, the imagery they seem to evoke and then there is the actual stonework itself. Simply lovely.

 

 

Dinner Service

Actually what I should call this post is "In Service of Dinner" because it pertains to the bout of anxiety I usually feel when it is time to host a big dinner party. I want dinner to be perfectly enjoyable for my guests but not neurotically done up. I want to evolve to the stage where I care less about what people think and do more of what suits my taste. I like to mix and match.

I fall into the eclectic crowd as far as interior décor is concerned---a lot of colour, a lot of mismatch, a general theme or two, running along the lines of colour or furniture style. Otherwise, I buy what appeals to me.

And I do find that once I get home all the pieces just seem to fit.

So I never wanted wedding china. Never had a wedding registry. So when I serve dinner the tablescape is usually held together by a colour or texture. I would never buy a 48 piece dinner set.

A little Wedgewood, some pottery from Provence and a tea set from the Flea and so on.

 

 

So when it comes to serving up dinner for a crowd, can it not be a mix of old, old and some new?

Vases and Vessels

                                    Do you use your decorative  vessels to hold your flowers?

 

 

Scant number of stems given drama by a ceramic collection.

 

 

 

And all that lavender available at the market and DIY shops.

 

Jonathan Adler, OneKingsLane, Horchow, and other great online shops carry some interesting vessels and vases and it is so easy to walk through a flea market and just buy four or five pretty little vessels all at once. Once you are home, you think, these are definitely pretty but they were impulse buys and what am I going to do with all these bowls and tea pots?

I must admit sometimes I see a bowl or plant pot that is unusual bordering on garish in design or just "cute but too small and purposeless" and then I look around at an interior decorator's latest work and I see how whimsical and surprisingly beautiful it can turn out when you add some flowers to an otherwise utilitarian vessel or an ugly and oversized plant pot.

 

*Images via Pinterest.