Raymond RorkeRaymond Rorke Ceramics

Reading List

These books are my friends. They inspire work, inform critical thinking, and stand the test of time.​

 

 

CERAMICS by Philip Rawson (Oxford 1971; U of PA 1984)

An excellent and original critical survey of pottery, using examples from a wide scope of locales and times. Eloquent, insightful and accessible, it explains the real but elusive qualities of fine wares with clarity and balance, using facts together with their symbolic and metaphorical overtones. Rawson invites us to use emotional awareness and intuition to appreciate the richness of pottery as a human experience. He discusses the symbolic meaning of color and form, tactile quality and memory traces to show how pottery as art communicates to a wide audience by expressing human sensuous life. This important book is provocative and its ideas on aesthetics resonate beyond pottery. A book on WHY to work in ceramics rather than HOW to work in ceramics.

 

SHIFTING PARADIGMS IN CONTEMPORARY CERAMICS
The Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio Collection
by Garth Clark, Mark Del Vecchio, Cindi Strauss, et al. (2012)

As gallerists, scholars, and collectors, Garth Clark and Mark Del Vecchio have indelibly shaped the field of ceramics by expanding notions of the medium’s possibilities. This comprehensive — and gloriously photographed — catalogue features, for the first time in its entirety, their esteemed collection of ceramics, acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 2007. These 481 works, produced by artists from more than 20 countries, range from functional wares and modern vessels to sculptural works and postmodern objects. As an ensemble, they represent and connect the major shifts in the techniques and aesthetics of ceramics from the mid-twentieth century to the present day.

The works are arranged in 4 thematic sections: Implications: the Modern Pot / Some Other Functions of a Pot: Sounds of Laughter and Shades of Earth / The Postmodern Pot / Born of Clay. In each of these sections, Clark relates his experiences in building the collection, including personal, candid stories about the artists, and Del Vecchio and other scholars examine the ever-evolving shifts in thinking, making, and appreciating contemporary ceramics.
 

FINDING ONE’S WAY WITH CLAY: PINCHED POTTERY AND THE COLOR OF CLAY by Paulus Berensohn (1972)

A classic. Berensohn, the “Guru of Pottery as Personal Fulfillment,” exposes his relationship with clay to show how you, too, can find your Way. This definitive pinch-pot book also shows how to color clay and sawdust fire pots — bypassing the glazing stage as a Way of keeping the immediacy of making in the finished pot. Many stops along the Way in breathing, being, sitting still and moving on, with an excerpt of his Journal at the end.

 

ON POTTERY AND PORCELAIN: A HANDBUILDER’S APPROACH by Mary Rogers (1979)

A beautiful book, both in appearance and in its encouraging way of making fineness accessible. Primarily a discussion of handbuilding in porcelain, it can inspire any potter. The natural forms of shells, pods, fruit, rocks, and trees are here for us all, and techniques of making glazes and colored clay can be non-threateningly simple, inviting experimentation and invention. It has special chapters on colored inlay clay and traditional African handbuilding.

 

THE UNKNOWN CRAFTSMAN: A JAPANESE INSIGHT INTO BEAUTY by Soetsu Yanagi (foreword by Shoji Hamada) (1972)

 

FOLK ARTS AND CRAFTS OF JAPAN by Kageo Muraoka and Kichiemon Okamura (1973)

 

TAMBA POTTERY: THE TIMELESS ART OF A JAPANESE VILLAGE by Daniel Rhodes

 

THE WORLD OF JAPANESE CERAMICS by Herbert H. Sanders with the collaboration of Kenkichi Tomimoto (1982)

 

CERAMICS: A POTTER’S HANDBOOK (3rd edition) by Glenn C. Nelson (1960)

THE first book to get (and keep). It covers everything, beginning with an historic overview of pottery and moving on to clay, forming methods, form and design, decoration, glazes, kilns, studios. Even talks about industrial and production pottery. Recipes, glossary, bibliography.

 

ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY OF PRACTICAL POTTERY by Robert Fournier (1977)

An exhaustive compilation of technical information which can answer any pottery question you’d ever ask, with over 1200 entries of definitions, descriptions, recipes, formulas, step-by-step processes, ceramic terms. This handy guide is elaborated throughout with profuse cross references, along with ample drawings, photos, charts, diagrams. If authorities differ he includes that, too.

 

ILLUSTRATED DICTIONARY OF POTTERY FORM by Robert Fournier (1981)

An inspirational and instructive compilation of pottery forms that have appeared throughout history and around the world, arranged in dictionary format. From cisterns to cockroach traps and teapots to toast racks, from ocarinas and opium boxes to ramekins and rattles, it also discusses the details of pottery forms such as rims, handles, spouts, feet, lids — a must for the functional potter.

 

A POTTER’S BOOK by Bernard Leach (1940)

East meets West in this famous book by an Englishman who has lived and potted in Asia. Discusses workshop methods, recipes, and kilns with common sense as well as spirit. (The first chapter, “Towards a Standard,” is enough reason to own this book.)

 

THE POTTER’S CHALLENGE by Bernard Leach (1975)

 

POTTERY IN THE MAKING: WORLD CERAMIC TRADITIONS ed. by Ian Freestone and David Gaimster (1997)

 

POTTERY TECHNOLOGY: PRINCIPLES AND RECONSTRUCTION by Owen S. Rye (1981)

 

POTTERY ANALYSIS: A SOURCEBOOK by Prudence M. Rice (1987)

“An indispensable explanatory source book for all students of ceramics, especially archaeologists and anthropologists. . . . It breaks new ground. New in the sense that no other ceramicist has attempted such a compilation and blend of technological and social aspects in ceramic studies, both ancient and modern. New also in the emphasis on building a framework for understanding pottery vessels, from the raw materials to the use of the fired products in a particular social milieu. . . . For this reviewer, Rice’s presentation of the complex tapestry of factors affecting the potter’s choice of raw materials and how they may be manipulated is one of the most important features of the book.” -- William D. Glanzman, Archeomaterials

 

POTTERY AND PEOPLE by James Skibo (ed.), Gary Feinman (ed.) (1999)
This volume emphasizes the complex interactions between ceramic containers and people in past and present contexts. Pottery, once it appears in the archaeological record, is one of the most routinely recovered artifacts. It is made frequently, broken often, and comes in endless varieties according to economic and social requirements. Moreover, even in shreds ceramics can last almost forever, providing important clues about past human behavior. The contributors to this volume, all leaders in ceramic research, probe the relationship between humans and ceramics. Here they offer new discoveries obtained through traditional lines of inquiry, demonstrate methodological breakthroughs, and expose innovative new areas for research. Among the topics covered in this volume are the age at which children begin learning pottery making; the origins of pottery in the Southwest U.S., Mesoamerica, and Greece; vessel production and standardization; vessel size and food consumption patterns; the relationship between pottery style and meaning; and the role pottery and other material culture plays in communication. This is a milestone volume useful to anyone interested in the connections between pots and people.

 

CERAMIC THEORY AND CULTURAL PROCESS by Dean E. Arnold (1988)
This much-praised book aims to develop a theory of ceramics which will elucidate the complex relationship between ceramics and culture and society. Drawing upon the theoretical perspectives of systems theory, cybernetics and cultural ecology, Dr Arnold develops cross-cultural generalizations to explain the origins and evolution of the craft of pottery making. These processes are organized into a series of feedback mechanisms which limit or stimulate the initial production of pottery and its transition from a part-time to a full-time specialized activity. The author provides extensive ethnographic documentation, taken from a wide-ranging synthesis of the available literature and employing many data from his own fieldwork in Peru, Guatemala and Mexico, to illustrate the existence of these feedback relationships in societies around the world. Each mechanism is viewed, not as a relationship which exists in a few of the world's cultures, but as a universal generalization often based on some unique physical or chemical aspect of the pottery itself. Ceramic theory and cultural process is an innovative approach to the archaeological interpretation of ceramics which significantly extends our understanding of the social, cultural and environmental processes of ceramic production.

 

POTTERY FORM by Daniel Rhodes (1976)

A handsome book of pottery form with emphasis on throwing. It takes you (with sensitive photos) from the wedging table to the wheel, with forms ranging from plates to tall vases, giving clear step-by-step information in a fresh, relaxed way so that you, too, can become sure-footedly spontaneous. It touches on handbuilding, clays, glazing, and decoration, and offers an inspiring approach to form drawn from the human body.

 

A POTTER’S WORKBOOK by Clary Illian (1999)

 

FUNCTIONAL POTTERY: FORM AND AESTHETIC IN POTS OF PURPOSE by Robin Hopper (2000)

 

POTTERY TECHNIQUES OF DECORATION by John Colbeck (1983)

Comprehensive and inspiring, this book describes and explores (with step-by-step demonstration photos) just about every way to decorate a pot, during all its stages of making. From altering form to modelling surface to applying slips and glazes, the techniques range from the simple and commonplace to the rare and esoteric. The detailed and sensitive text comments on subtleties of the processes and aesthetic considerations. Historical examples make it even more thorough and stimulating.

 

THE POTTER’S GUIDE TO CERAMIC SURFACES by Jo Connell (2002)

 

MAKING POTTERY WITHOUT A WHEEL: TEXTURE AND FORM IN CLAY by F. Carlton Ball and Janice Lovoos (1965)

Beginning with a mesmerizing series of photos on texturing clay, this book describes (with detailed descriptions and photos) ways to work with clay without a wheel. Most of the methods involve draping or wrapping clay in or around found forms, using tools usually found at home. It can encourage one to continue making pottery outside a studio setting and to be aware of the everyday world for possible sources for form (save those milk cartons!). This book’s approach would also appeal to potters with a sculptural/constructionist bent.

 

CLAYWORK: FORM & IDEA IN CERAMIC DESIGN by Leon I. Nigrosh (1975)

A good, basic, all-around book for technique and reference. Includes chapters on clay, handbuilding, throwing, decoration, form, glazing, firing kilns, wheels, plaster, marketing. Glossary, bibliography, recipes.

 

THE POTTER’S DIRECTORY OF SHAPE AND FORM by Neal French (1998)

Over 600 at-a-glance designs.

 

A HANDBOOK OF POTTERY GLAZES by David Green (1979)

 

THE CERAMIC GLAZE HANDBOOK by Mark Burleson (1981)

 

NAKED CLAY: CERAMICS WITHOUT GLAZE by Jane Perryman (2004)

 

A POTTER’S GUIDE TO RAW GLAZING AND OIL FIRING by Dennis Parks (1980)

 

Ceramic Skillbooks Series, London

     CLAYS by Frank and Janet Hamer (1977)

     KILN BUILDING by Ian Gregory (1977)

     POTTERY SCIENCE by Martin Wickham (1978)