Tales of a Red Clay Rambler: A pottery and ceramic art podcast

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Justin Rothshank. Working from his home studio in Goshen, IN Justin has been making functional pottery and experimenting with low-temperature firing techniques for many years. He recently published his first full-length book Low Fire Soda , which outlines his experimentation and development of atmospheric-fired earthenware....

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Kate Johnston. She uses local materials to make highly decorated pots that are fired in a wood kiln outside of Seagrove, NC. Her work is boldly patterned with botanical imagery drawn from art deco design. In our interview we talk about developing design rules to guide one's work in the studio, the romance of NC pottery tradi...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Tom Lauerman, an artist and educator who is working with a consortium of over 200 researchers to develop personal protective equipment for medical personnel during the COVID-19 outbreak. In our interview we talk about the evolution of PPE designs and how rapid prototyping using 3D printers has made daily progress possible. W...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Jonathan Barnes, who teaches ceramics, printmaking and art appreciation at the St. Pete College Clearwater campus. In our interview we talk about responding to COVID-19 in the classroom and best practices for teaching art online. We also discuss his personal response to the pandemic, which has been to 3D print personal prote...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Kerianne Quick and Adam John Manley. Both are makers with studio practices steeped in craft, as well as professors of art in the Metals and Wood Departments at San Diego State University. In our interview we talk about their approach to materials, the concepts behind their recent bodies of work, and Craft Desert , a zine foc...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Kelly Schnorr. She is an artist and educator based in the San Diego area where she teaches ceramics at Coronado High School. We talk about time management, effective teaching methods for high school age students, and how to design a studio that can cycle through over one hundred and fifty students each day. In addition to he...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Brian Jones. His functional work explores line, color and mark making in earthenware. In 2011 he started The Jonescast , a podcast devoted to exploring what it means to be an artist while juggling life and work. This influential show ran for over sixty episodes and influenced a wave of ceramic related podcasts. For many year...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Jordan McDonald. Raised in the suburbs of Toronto, Jordan now lives in West Philadelphia where he makes functional pottery decorated with motifs drawn from historical painting and ceramics. To compliment his studio practice, he started the Pots in Words Instagram feed which features written descriptions of historical pots. H...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Sam Harvey. He came to Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley to take a workshop at Anderson Ranch in the mid 1990's, which began a long relationship that continues to this day including time as a studio coordinator, a board member, and an instructor. His studio practice includes pinched vessels that are decorated with geometric sha...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Louise Deroualle. After an early interest in functional work, Louise has shifted to landscape-oriented wall work and sculptures that reference seed pods. The work is unified by a lichen-like glaze technique that involves putting refractory slips over the top of fluid glazes. In our interview we talk about growing up in San P...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Daniel Dallabrida. After a long career in public relations Dallabrida turned to art as a form of visual storytelling, narrating the opinions he could not express in the corporate world. He draws from his experience living through the AIDS crisis to create video, installations, and sculpture that illustrate the effect the dis...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with HP Bloomer. His functional ceramics are decorated with layers of pattern before being fired in atmospheric kilns to enhance their surfaces. In our interview we talk about how complexity in his making process keeps him engaged, learning to self-edit, and methods for pattern making. To find out more visit www.hpbloomer.com .  ...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Louise Cort. After traveling to Japan on an exchange program in high school, Louise developed a love for everyday functional objects. This fascination led her to a PHD in ceramic history from Oxford and then onto nearly fifty years of research and curatorial work in museums. Forty of those years was spent working for the Smi...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Ryan Greenheck. His functional ceramics are influenced by European slipware and Chinese porcelain traditions. He maintains a studio in Philadelphia, PA and has been instrumental in starting invitational sales of functional ceramics in urban environments in the North East of the United States. In our interview we talk about e...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Stephanie Kantor. In her most recent body of work Stephanie explores myths surrounding water through multiple series of ceramic sculpture and painting. In our interview we talk about the relative values of art-making materials, how experiencing a Turkish hammam sparked her interest in bathing culture, and her time as a Zeldi...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I speak with Aysha Peltz, Bruce Dehnert, and Lisa Vettoso, the organizers of the 45th annual Old Church Pottery Show. The event started in 1975 as a fundraiser for the Art School at Old Church in Demarest, NJ and quickly grew into one of the premier yearly sales of studio ceramics in the United States. In the interview we talk about the legacy of sa...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Michael Connelly. In his Phoenixville, PA studio he makes functional pottery balancing highly engineered forms and expressive line work. In our interview we talk about creating the bones of a strong ceramic form, converting former industrial spaces into creative space in the Brewerytown neighborhood of Philadelphia, and find...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with ceramic artist James Whiting. After living in Japan for many years he developed a love for ceramics that guided him into his own studio practice. James makes hand built vessels that are finished with nerikomi, embossing, and other compelling surface techniques. He is also the director of the Berkeley Potter's Studio, which h...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with potter and gallery owner Sandy Simon. She was a student of Warren MacKenzie's at the University of Minnesota in the late 1960's where she developed a studio practice of making utilitarian pots that continues to this day. In 1994 Sandy opened Trax Gallery in Berkeley, CA and has used the space to champion functional pottery....

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Wayne Higby. He came to Alfred University as an associate professor of ceramics in 1973. He continues to teach there to this day, along with maintaining an active studio practice and a recent appointment as the director of the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum. In our interview we talk about the importance of what Higby calls "witne...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Sam Chung. In his recent porcelain vessels, Chung references Korean folk-art motifs in both form and surface. In our interview we talk about the transitions in technique and content he has made in his career, his methods for altering ceramic forms, and the impact that loss has on personal identity. Chung is based in Tempe, A...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Sophie Aguilera Lester. Her ceramic sculpture is autobiographical in nature with a strong reference to historical Spanish painting. In our interview we talk about being a set designer for theater, her interest in the still life, and the art scene in Barcelona, where she has lived for most of her adult life. For more informat...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Naomi Clement. In her current body of work, she decorates functional pots with layers of abstracted text and loosely painted underglazes. The richness of her surfaces encourages the viewer to decipher the text and search for a larger narrative. In our interview we talk about the role pottery plays in daily rituals of observa...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have a special mailbag episode consisting of questions sent in from listeners. My wife Melissa comes on to cohost the show and we discuss topics including historical influences, bloopers from past seasons, and thoughts about how the #MeToo movement might affect ceramic history. On this milestone I want to send a special thank you to my listeners w...

Today on the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler Podcast I have an interview with Matt Ziemke. He abstracts the physical landscape to create planar structures that are covered with pattern and glaze. In our interview we talk about the effect technology has on the brain, working with the language of cartography, and building engaging surfaces through multiple firings. We also talk about his love of mountai...