Tag: ceramic

  • Meet The Maker: Lauren Herzak-Bauman of Lauren H-B Studio

    Hi! My name is Lauren and I make functional ceramics under the name Lauren H-B Studio. I grew up in a suburb near Cleveland, Ohio and always loved when my dad took me to the city. I loved visiting the Old Arcade with its beautiful wrought iron architecture and glass ceiling and window-shopping at all the small businesses that called this place home. My love of Cleveland and its architecture grew to include the century-old warehouses and factories that are found all over the city. My studio is housed in one of these old buildings, one that used to make electric cars at the turn of the century.

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    Clay has always been my go-to material. My mother started a community art center when I was young and I learned to throw on a pottery wheel before I could drive. But I did not always make pots. While I started my college education making functional work, I went to graduate school in Minnesota to study ceramic sculpture (you can see that work at laurenhb.com). I moved back to Cleveland from Minneapolis about four years ago and started making pots to support myself until I could find a full-time job. I discovered a lot of support for my work in my hometown and now I am happily self-employed as an artist, working on both my sculpture and my functional work.

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    Drawing on my background in sculpture, my forms take inspiration from abstract art and architecture. For surface inspiration, I look to natural phenomenon, such as moving water, rock striations, and star clusters. I love making things that can be both beautiful and useful. I design pots that have multiple uses. My serving bowls serve as tabletop artwork when not in use, but are also food safe and great for passing food around the table.

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    Making ceramics is a multi-step process. I work with plaster molds made from original designs to create my forms. This allows me to make geometric shapes and to repeat the same shape with consistency. I pour a porcelain casting slip inside each plaster mold. The plaster absorbs the water from the slip and leaves a skin. After some time passes, I pour out the remaining slip. The remaining ‘skin’ becomes the ceramic object.

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    After each piece comes out of the mold, I refine the surface and add any necessary slip details prior to the first firing. After the first firing, I spend a lot of time working on the surfaces of each pot. I really love the glaze process! I enjoy layering colors and finding new ways to add surface to my pieces. After I finish glazing, the pieces go back in the electric kiln for a glaze firing. Some pieces will go in the kiln one more time, this time for a luster firing, which allows me to add a low temperature metallic surface to the pieces.

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    This is my first year traveling to Philly for Art Star Craft Bazaar and I couldn’t be more excited to share my work with a new audience. I’m bringing lots of new pieces and a new color palette to the show. Please stop by Booth #55! And thank you for shopping small business and handmade!

  • Meet The Maker: Kimberly Frey of Happy Land Handmade

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    I started Happy Land Handmade in 2010 to put a name to what I do, which is crafting art objects, wearables, home goods and pottery out of ceramics. My husband and I derived the name from the title of a 19th century Scottish hymn as a ode to our faith. It seemed fitting to touch that vein as an identity piece because I find that the identity of an artist illuminates the work that we make. The pretzel happens to be a symbol I use which touches this vein too. The history of this beloved food is that it was conceived by Italian nuns and labeled as the “trinity loaf.” Besides my faith identity, it represents my heritage as the great great grand daughter of an Italian immigrant who ventured to establish himself as an American citizen and pretzel shop owner on 2nd street in Philadelphia.

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    I studied fashion design at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia before transferring to Tyler School of Art for crafts and ceramics. I still pull influence from my time in fashion school into my ceramic work. I am inspired to create wearable porcelain jewelry as well as styling and photographing my own photoshoots of people I meet in my own life. I absolutely love the process of creating my own photos of my work. It enables me to have full control over the marketing aspect. I also take it as an opportunity to make art in another medium; photography. So I’m not just interested in photographing a ceramic pot on a gradient background, but more about creating an interactive environment for my work and then photographing that. Though I’m mostly self taught, I truly am a novice of many art forms and am nearly always, unapologetically seeking out another opportunity to try my hand in something new.

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    I work at my home studio in Happy Valley Pennsylvania which is completely perfect for me. I am an artist mother and being in the home while I practice my craft is essential for this season of life. I am able to seamlessly float between domestic and motherly duties back to the ebb and flow of the ceramic process; one that is both meditative and ever undulating. I work with various ceramic processes such as hand building, throwing, mold making and slip casting. My recent work is inspired by various fashion trends, food, color and material. Honestly, I am an alchemist at heart so this medium a lot of times, informs itself. I will both interpret color and texture from real life into my work or uncover color and texture in my work and expound on it. I see mastering ceramics as a life time of testing and follow through. Each body of work that I make uncovers new insights on the endless possibilities of material, color and form. It’s really fun; at least when things don’t go disastrously wrong, which, any ceramist knows to always account for waste.

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    I am learning to be business minded as Happy Land debuts this July for its first real deal craft event. I am excited to bring well made and designed, affordable ceramics to the market place and to meet you and the other makers. And of course, to enjoy the sun and surf, which is where I would live permanently if I could! Till then, take care and see you soon.

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    Find Happy Land Handmade Online and at our Upcoming Art Star Craft Bazaar in Asbury Park, NJ on July 30th and 31st.

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