Her clay forms are all handmade — either hand built or thrown on the wheel, after which they are hand-painted. The work is then fired in a gas kiln to 2,350 degrees. Other materials used include hand-dyed cotton, hemp rope, and reclaimed wood. The finished products are meant to be showcased either in the home or the garden.

“When making things I have to see it in my head first,” she relayed in an interview with Matter of Hand. “Some people just go for it and it evolves, but for me it’s weird – I have to see it in my head or I don’t believe I can do it. I have to be able to see the process linearly. Once I figure out how to make something the first time I’ll make a template so that I don’t have to re-think it every time. If you have to think too hard it’s more exhausting.”

The pieces themselves become a canvas for her love of drawing, painting, text, and color; with inspiration found in the writings and teachings of Buddhism and its extensive visual language. “I’m not making work to challenge people,” explains Quan. “I just hope that at a moment in their life, customers could have pleasure from looking at or owning an object that I made. I feel like anything I say is going to sound corny, but I want my pieces to create moments where people look back at their intentions and how they want to operate in the world, what they wish to see or have or be or connect with. Just bringing them back into the present and connecting them to the beauty of the world; that’s a moment where everyone feels really good. It’s like touching ground before you go off into the craziness.”

The post These Ceramic Objects Are Rooted In Visual Symbols appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Valeria Monis

Tel-Aviv-based ceramic artist, Valeria Monis, draws her inspiration from an unconventional source: Russian prison tattoos. Each of her ceramic pieces is designed, crafted, and illustrated by hand, incorporating personal stories borrowed from Soviet police prison files. Combined with the traditional blue porcelain tea set, the end result is rather striking.

Erica Lynn Hood

Ceramic artist, Erica Lynn Hood, takes her inspiration directly from nature, incorporating flora and fauna into her designs. Her ceramic sets feature illustrations of birds, insects, and flowers. Each illustration is painted with black underglaze on top of a piece of tissue paper and then transferred onto the clay surface. “Nature is such an important part of my life and my artwork, so I have been slowly building up a body of work that illustrates all the amazing animals that I love,” she told the Boston Voyager.

Lindsey Hampton

Lindsey Hampton’s ceramics are a pastel dream. Crowned by The New York Times as one of the people who is redefining the art of ceramics, her mugs and bowls are what that one hipster friend of yours would like to get for Christmas.

The post Upgrade Your Tea Set With These Ceramic Artists appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Born and raised in London, and currently based in Brooklyn, Blegvad comes from a family of artists, which makes sense judging by the sheer amount of creativity she displays. “Both my parents are artists – my mum is a painter, my dad an illustrator,” she told Metal Magazine. “My grandparents were artists and illustrators too – I’m the third generation.”

“So drawing and art was always a huge part of my life,” she went on to explain. “I drew from the moment I could hold a pencil and made little clay sculptures and paper dollhouses and all sorts of things. I think I was always quite serious about it. When I was a bit older, 5 or 6, I began making tiny illustrated books – most of them are on the topic of cats, girls, and death. So I guess my kind of illustration was always on the cards.”

Nowadays, her work often deals with ideas about female identity and mental health, with select clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, Penguin Random House, and Buzzfeed.

“I’ve always really liked simplified, naïve images,” she admits. “I don’t have a lot of time for realism. It just doesn’t do it for me. There’s an immediacy in a simple image, you can see the marks, the speed of the line, the urgency of getting an idea down. I love children’s drawings, outsider art, images made because the image needed to be made. So I guess things like that have influenced me a lot.”

Check out some of her charming works of art (illustrated or otherwise).

The post Anything Kaye Blegvad Touches Turns to Gold appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I’m in love with ceramic because is a material that allows almost everything,” admitted Julieta Alvarez in an interview with Cup of Couple. “You can experiment with it, try new things, learn, make jewelry, sculptures or just disconnect from the world and lose track of time.”

Coming from a fashion and graphic design background, it all started when Alvarez decided to mix things up by taking a ceramic course. “I needed a change and I decided to take a course imparted by Resu Labrador, an artisan that had a workshop near home,” she explained. “I used to go there full of ideas, and she taught me different techniques to achieve my objectives. Since then, I haven’t stopped!”

Inspired by nature, the sisters’ pieces are currently available in five continents at cities like Paris, Tokyo, New York, Sidney, London, and Helsinki. Their pieces have also been shown at galleries, stores, and international museums. Take a look at some of our favorites in the gallery below:

The post This Brand Will Inspire You to Wear Your Ceramics appeared first on PlayJunkie.

But though these objects aren’t necessarily out of the ordinary, they carry a special meaning to Daneels. “I made a selection of objects that play an important role in my memories and my personal life story,” she explained in an interview with It’s Nice That. “By being the archaeologist of my own memories, I tried to bring the memories back to life in ceramic sculptures. The work brings up a memory-game of associations and stories.”

Daneels took to ceramics at a time she was studying for her master’s degree in illustration at KASK School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium. But her love for clay blossomed much earlier, explaining that “the passion for ceramics came from my grandmother, who makes porcelain dolls. I’ve seen her making them since I was born. I was always fascinated when I entered her workspace and saw all the porcelain heads, bodies and her huge collection of old fabrics.”

Check out her Instagram page for more fanciful artwork.

The post Louise Daneels’ Ceramic Art Imitates Life (Quite Literally) appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I love the personalized element to it, especially with gifts,” she shared with Inky Goodness. “A lot of people come to me with a commission for a friend who has a pet that they love dearly, or they want me to pull their personal quirks out from. I just love the thought of them opening this completely unexpected gift.”

“I guess what makes me different is my northern humor,” she admitted. “I’ve a distinctive style, which I’ve been trying to snap out of for a while. I think it’s good to be recognizable, but it can start to feel a bit stale as an artist, to always be following the same path. I’ve been experimenting with clay and larger, more color and texture-based, minimal painting. With the ceramics, I’ve managed to pick some comic characters right off the paper, and mold them into these life-like creations, that are also really sellable products.”

Indeed, her artwork will likely put a smile on your face. Take a look for yourself.

The post Tracey Meek’s Artwork Will Put a Smile on Your Face appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I was living with a roommate who was doing ceramics in his garage and I had a bunch of concepts floating around in my head,” recalled the Texas-based artist. “He taught me the basics and I have been doing it for 8 years now. My style has evolved as I have learned more about my craft. I will have ideas for years and not know how to properly execute them. Then, someone within my community will give me some advice or I will learn a new technique and figure it out. Once I have a success like that, I will build off of it and apply that new technique to other pieces.”

The self-taught artist now sells his creations online and has gathered a small following on Instagram. “I love it when people are confused by my pieces at first glance,” he said on the Urban Outfitters blog. “Then once they figure it out, I hope they are delighted.”

We sure are delighted.

The post Self-Taught Ceramic Artist Creates ’90s-Inspired Sculptures appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I feel that my consistent theme is making work that makes me feel happy,” she shared with the Urban Outfitters blog. “Even if it has to do with unsettling subjects like death, or mysteries of the ocean, I like it all to bring out positive feelings.”

Talking about her work routine she said: “I usually wake up around 10 am and work until midnight or later, in the studio or doing computer work. I watch a lot of movies, series, and trash tv while I work. I also listen to music and podcasts… It helps me stay focused/get in the zone.”

Check out some of her work in the gallery below.

The post Add a Touch of Humor to Your Home with Lorien Stern’s Ceramics appeared first on PlayJunkie.

In an interview with MONTECRISTO Magazine, Hampton talked about her choice of colors, explaining: “I think the pastels were kind of my compromise, my own internal compromise — just using pastels and light colors was how I was able to be okay with so much color. I appreciate color, but I’m making things for someone else, sort of: someone who’s much bolder than me and loves having color in their home. Sometimes I make things that have a lot of color and I think, ‘Who would like this? Who is this for?’”

“I like the hard angles and sharp lines,” she added. “That’s another thing I don’t even think about—that’s just how I make things. It’s a tricky medium in which to be precise; it doesn’t want to be precise all the time, so it’s challenging.”

We sure would love to get our hands on some of her creations! Take a look at some of our favorites in the gallery below.

The post Help! We’ve Fallen in Love with Pastel-Colored Ceramics appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“My surface design is inspired by animals, wallpaper, nature, and ink wash paintings,” she told the Boston Voyager. “I loosely sketch out all of my ideas first and then refine the illustrations based on the form that they are going to be transferred onto. Each illustration is painted with black underglaze on top of a piece of tissue paper. The illustrations are then transferred onto the clay surface. I use watered down black underglaze to add shading and other details onto the piece before it is fired. Once the surface is decorated, it gets fired in the kiln, glazed, and fired one more time.”

“I am really interested in illustrating a variety of animals,” she said. “I like animals that have a lot of personalities, but I also enjoy using my work as a platform to start conversations about threatened and endangered species. Right now, I am obsessed with Condors and Vultures, but I have a soft spot for any birds of prey. Nature is such an important part of my life and my artwork, so I have been slowly building up a body of work that illustrates all the amazing animals that I love.”

Her one of a kind ceramics are sold in person at markets and open studios, but you can also order them on her Etsy shop.

The post Upgrade Dinner Time With This Ceramic Sets appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Her clay forms are all handmade — either hand built or thrown on the wheel, after which they are hand-painted. The work is then fired in a gas kiln to 2,350 degrees. Other materials used include hand-dyed cotton, hemp rope, and reclaimed wood. The finished products are meant to be showcased either in the home or the garden.

“When making things I have to see it in my head first,” she relayed in an interview with Matter of Hand. “Some people just go for it and it evolves, but for me it’s weird – I have to see it in my head or I don’t believe I can do it. I have to be able to see the process linearly. Once I figure out how to make something the first time I’ll make a template so that I don’t have to re-think it every time. If you have to think too hard it’s more exhausting.”

The pieces themselves become a canvas for her love of drawing, painting, text, and color; with inspiration found in the writings and teachings of Buddhism and its extensive visual language. “I’m not making work to challenge people,” explains Quan. “I just hope that at a moment in their life, customers could have pleasure from looking at or owning an object that I made. I feel like anything I say is going to sound corny, but I want my pieces to create moments where people look back at their intentions and how they want to operate in the world, what they wish to see or have or be or connect with. Just bringing them back into the present and connecting them to the beauty of the world; that’s a moment where everyone feels really good. It’s like touching ground before you go off into the craziness.”

The post These Ceramic Objects Are Rooted In Visual Symbols appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Valeria Monis

Tel-Aviv-based ceramic artist, Valeria Monis, draws her inspiration from an unconventional source: Russian prison tattoos. Each of her ceramic pieces is designed, crafted, and illustrated by hand, incorporating personal stories borrowed from Soviet police prison files. Combined with the traditional blue porcelain tea set, the end result is rather striking.

Erica Lynn Hood

Ceramic artist, Erica Lynn Hood, takes her inspiration directly from nature, incorporating flora and fauna into her designs. Her ceramic sets feature illustrations of birds, insects, and flowers. Each illustration is painted with black underglaze on top of a piece of tissue paper and then transferred onto the clay surface. “Nature is such an important part of my life and my artwork, so I have been slowly building up a body of work that illustrates all the amazing animals that I love,” she told the Boston Voyager.

Lindsey Hampton

Lindsey Hampton’s ceramics are a pastel dream. Crowned by The New York Times as one of the people who is redefining the art of ceramics, her mugs and bowls are what that one hipster friend of yours would like to get for Christmas.

The post Upgrade Your Tea Set With These Ceramic Artists appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Born and raised in London, and currently based in Brooklyn, Blegvad comes from a family of artists, which makes sense judging by the sheer amount of creativity she displays. “Both my parents are artists – my mum is a painter, my dad an illustrator,” she told Metal Magazine. “My grandparents were artists and illustrators too – I’m the third generation.”

“So drawing and art was always a huge part of my life,” she went on to explain. “I drew from the moment I could hold a pencil and made little clay sculptures and paper dollhouses and all sorts of things. I think I was always quite serious about it. When I was a bit older, 5 or 6, I began making tiny illustrated books – most of them are on the topic of cats, girls, and death. So I guess my kind of illustration was always on the cards.”

Nowadays, her work often deals with ideas about female identity and mental health, with select clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, Penguin Random House, and Buzzfeed.

“I’ve always really liked simplified, naïve images,” she admits. “I don’t have a lot of time for realism. It just doesn’t do it for me. There’s an immediacy in a simple image, you can see the marks, the speed of the line, the urgency of getting an idea down. I love children’s drawings, outsider art, images made because the image needed to be made. So I guess things like that have influenced me a lot.”

Check out some of her charming works of art (illustrated or otherwise).

The post Anything Kaye Blegvad Touches Turns to Gold appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I’m in love with ceramic because is a material that allows almost everything,” admitted Julieta Alvarez in an interview with Cup of Couple. “You can experiment with it, try new things, learn, make jewelry, sculptures or just disconnect from the world and lose track of time.”

Coming from a fashion and graphic design background, it all started when Alvarez decided to mix things up by taking a ceramic course. “I needed a change and I decided to take a course imparted by Resu Labrador, an artisan that had a workshop near home,” she explained. “I used to go there full of ideas, and she taught me different techniques to achieve my objectives. Since then, I haven’t stopped!”

Inspired by nature, the sisters’ pieces are currently available in five continents at cities like Paris, Tokyo, New York, Sidney, London, and Helsinki. Their pieces have also been shown at galleries, stores, and international museums. Take a look at some of our favorites in the gallery below:

The post This Brand Will Inspire You to Wear Your Ceramics appeared first on PlayJunkie.

But though these objects aren’t necessarily out of the ordinary, they carry a special meaning to Daneels. “I made a selection of objects that play an important role in my memories and my personal life story,” she explained in an interview with It’s Nice That. “By being the archaeologist of my own memories, I tried to bring the memories back to life in ceramic sculptures. The work brings up a memory-game of associations and stories.”

Daneels took to ceramics at a time she was studying for her master’s degree in illustration at KASK School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium. But her love for clay blossomed much earlier, explaining that “the passion for ceramics came from my grandmother, who makes porcelain dolls. I’ve seen her making them since I was born. I was always fascinated when I entered her workspace and saw all the porcelain heads, bodies and her huge collection of old fabrics.”

Check out her Instagram page for more fanciful artwork.

The post Louise Daneels’ Ceramic Art Imitates Life (Quite Literally) appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I love the personalized element to it, especially with gifts,” she shared with Inky Goodness. “A lot of people come to me with a commission for a friend who has a pet that they love dearly, or they want me to pull their personal quirks out from. I just love the thought of them opening this completely unexpected gift.”

“I guess what makes me different is my northern humor,” she admitted. “I’ve a distinctive style, which I’ve been trying to snap out of for a while. I think it’s good to be recognizable, but it can start to feel a bit stale as an artist, to always be following the same path. I’ve been experimenting with clay and larger, more color and texture-based, minimal painting. With the ceramics, I’ve managed to pick some comic characters right off the paper, and mold them into these life-like creations, that are also really sellable products.”

Indeed, her artwork will likely put a smile on your face. Take a look for yourself.

The post Tracey Meek’s Artwork Will Put a Smile on Your Face appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I was living with a roommate who was doing ceramics in his garage and I had a bunch of concepts floating around in my head,” recalled the Texas-based artist. “He taught me the basics and I have been doing it for 8 years now. My style has evolved as I have learned more about my craft. I will have ideas for years and not know how to properly execute them. Then, someone within my community will give me some advice or I will learn a new technique and figure it out. Once I have a success like that, I will build off of it and apply that new technique to other pieces.”

The self-taught artist now sells his creations online and has gathered a small following on Instagram. “I love it when people are confused by my pieces at first glance,” he said on the Urban Outfitters blog. “Then once they figure it out, I hope they are delighted.”

We sure are delighted.

The post Self-Taught Ceramic Artist Creates ’90s-Inspired Sculptures appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I feel that my consistent theme is making work that makes me feel happy,” she shared with the Urban Outfitters blog. “Even if it has to do with unsettling subjects like death, or mysteries of the ocean, I like it all to bring out positive feelings.”

Talking about her work routine she said: “I usually wake up around 10 am and work until midnight or later, in the studio or doing computer work. I watch a lot of movies, series, and trash tv while I work. I also listen to music and podcasts… It helps me stay focused/get in the zone.”

Check out some of her work in the gallery below.

The post Add a Touch of Humor to Your Home with Lorien Stern’s Ceramics appeared first on PlayJunkie.

In an interview with MONTECRISTO Magazine, Hampton talked about her choice of colors, explaining: “I think the pastels were kind of my compromise, my own internal compromise — just using pastels and light colors was how I was able to be okay with so much color. I appreciate color, but I’m making things for someone else, sort of: someone who’s much bolder than me and loves having color in their home. Sometimes I make things that have a lot of color and I think, ‘Who would like this? Who is this for?’”

“I like the hard angles and sharp lines,” she added. “That’s another thing I don’t even think about—that’s just how I make things. It’s a tricky medium in which to be precise; it doesn’t want to be precise all the time, so it’s challenging.”

We sure would love to get our hands on some of her creations! Take a look at some of our favorites in the gallery below.

The post Help! We’ve Fallen in Love with Pastel-Colored Ceramics appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“My surface design is inspired by animals, wallpaper, nature, and ink wash paintings,” she told the Boston Voyager. “I loosely sketch out all of my ideas first and then refine the illustrations based on the form that they are going to be transferred onto. Each illustration is painted with black underglaze on top of a piece of tissue paper. The illustrations are then transferred onto the clay surface. I use watered down black underglaze to add shading and other details onto the piece before it is fired. Once the surface is decorated, it gets fired in the kiln, glazed, and fired one more time.”

“I am really interested in illustrating a variety of animals,” she said. “I like animals that have a lot of personalities, but I also enjoy using my work as a platform to start conversations about threatened and endangered species. Right now, I am obsessed with Condors and Vultures, but I have a soft spot for any birds of prey. Nature is such an important part of my life and my artwork, so I have been slowly building up a body of work that illustrates all the amazing animals that I love.”

Her one of a kind ceramics are sold in person at markets and open studios, but you can also order them on her Etsy shop.

The post Upgrade Dinner Time With This Ceramic Sets appeared first on PlayJunkie.