Vaness Studios Pottery

Things You Might Not Know About Ceramics

A faint mark exists on a shard of clay pottery that is, in fact, the oldest human fingerprint we’ve ever discovered. It was found at an archaeological site situated in Northern Kuwait, in Western Asia, and it is roughly 7 300 years old, which dates it back to the Stone Age. This same site has revealed a cemetery, a temple, a town, and more evidence of the community that once inhabited it so long ago, and proves that there is more to ceramics than just the utilitarian purposes we have assigned it over the years! It can inform us to our history, too, and reveal information about how we were working and living thousands of years ago.  (more…)

Contemporary Artists Redefining Ceramic Artistry

From prehistoric to modern times, ceramists have been contributing to the world of art for centuries. As British ceramist Aaron Angell stated, “Ceramics is a medium that, with every passing decade, becomes easier for the untrained to manipulate—more rampant, versatile, and demystified, and perhaps more worthy of a clarified position within the wider history of sculpture”. Angell is by no means alone in this opinion – these contemporary artists are said to be redefining the landscape of ceramic art.

(more…)