Handbuilt Tableware: Making Distinctive Plates, Bowls, Mugs, Teapots and More:

by Kathy Triplett

Imagine making serving dishes perfectly suited to the food you're preparing--perhaps a cone-shaped bowl on a pedestal, filled with shrimp and corn, with the husks shooting up gracefully. What an impression this would make on your guests...and what a pleasure for your family to sit down to such a beautifully prepared table. With clay, and guidance by a best-selling author who's a real pro at ceramics, it's simple to hand-build stylish, customized tableware that's just like the pieces you covet in pricey galleries. Even beginners will easily follow the illustrated instructions for making slabs, extruding, molding, and more. Every seasonally themed project showcases a complete table setting, with a delicious extra in each--a teapot in one, a pitcher in another--and features a new technique to try out. For more creative inspiration, four top potters share detailed expertise in the special section on surface they'll reveal the reasons behind their stylistic choices and walk you through the entire process. And, if you're a "rebel" who likes to do it your own way, the book is simply packed with options for adapting and substituting!

Genres: Art

144 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 2001

About the author

A native of Orangeburg, SC, Kathy Triplett attended the Universidad de las Americas in Puebla, Mexico and received her B. A. from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. Additionally, she honed her artistic skills in courses at La Meridiana, Italy; Arrowmont School, Tennessee; Castle Clay, Colorado; and the architecture department at Georgia Tech.

While in Mexico, Triplett developed an interest in the geometric elements of that region’s Olmec and Aztec architecture, which led to an interest in Art Deco architecture and design. Travels to Barcelona, Spain and an interest in the work of Gaudi contributed to a tendency towards more organic forms in her work. A recent trip to Mali, in West Africa, brought the influences of the colors of mudcloth and the shapes of the mud mosques and houses, to her work. A study of terra-sigillata in Italy encouraged more natural and warmer surfaces to the wall tiles she creates now.

But what explains the sea creature and insect-like forms in the work? Time spent every year exploring the shores of Edisto Island, SC, where horseshoe crabs and sharks’ teeth are found in abundance, contributes to the shapes and to the small detailed natural object additions on the teapots and the wall pieces.

Windows and openings from one layer into another are abiding elements in the work, metaphors for the layers of the self, or for the process of uncovering another world that lies beyond this one. An interest in texture and contrast leads Triplett to lengthy glaze testing in order to find new and intriguing surfaces.

Though she began her career as a wheelthrower, now handbuilding with slabs and coils is the method used to manipulate the clay. She is the author of Handbuilt Ceramics and Handbuilt Tableware and has exhibited at SOFA New York and Chicago, New Art Forms, Chicago; First International Tokyo Crafts Expo, Tokyo, Japan; The Tea Party, American Craft Museum, New York, NY; Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR, and is included in collections from Bolivia to Japan. She is a member of Piedmont Craftsmen, Inc., and the Southern Highland Guild and currently serves on the board of Handmade in America, Asheville, NC.

She lives in Weaverville, NC, with her husband and two dogs, in a solar house filled with handmade tiles and ceramic wall sconces, and works in a handbuilt studio nearby.

Reviews

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

The nice thing about hand built pottery is that you don't have to master the wheel in order to create a decent-looking piece. The works photographed in this book, as well as the projects, encourage newcomers to the craft to continue practicing and not give up.