movie day: Making of a Blueware Vase
Blueware Vases are the result of a process that captures direct impressions of botanical specimens on ceramics using light and photo sensitive chemicals.
Using age-old preserving techniques, humble weeds of inner London borough pavements are pressed, dried and then composed between plates of glass that function like photographic negatives. Working with light sensitive chemicals, the plates and tiles are then exposed under ultra violet light, which develops a photogram of the specimens in intense Prussian blue. What remains is a crisp white silhouette of the specimens, creating intricate floral designs of the subjects from root to tip.
This film shows the pressed designs incorporated into a vase.
Song credits: ‘Shadow Journal’ by Max Richter
research article: From Waste to Resource: Circular Economies for Construction Clay Spoil
From 2024-2026 British Ceramics Biennial (BCB) commissioned a research project exploring the creative reuse of construction spoil clay.Β The research was carried out by BCB Researcher Claire Baily and was supported by Louise Trodden (HS2 Arts & Culture Team).
Check out more of the research and download the article HERE.
monday morning eye candy: Yukiko Nagai
call for entry (australia): Clunes Ceramic Award
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Entries are open for the $10,000 national, acquisitive Clunes Ceramic Award 2026 exhibition, showcasing outstanding contemporary ceramic practice, in partnership with the @artgalleryofballarat and @castlemaineartmuseum, supported by the Hugh D. T Williamson Foundation.
Commendation Awards also presented alongside the major $10,000 prize at the opening event.
The successful Award is celebrated for its creativity and innovation, attracting ceramicists from across Australia.
βͺEntries Close: 9 Aug
βͺFinalists announced by: 21 Aug
βͺExhibition opening: 3 Oct
βͺExhibition: 4 Oct – 1 Nov
Exhibition: Esmond Gallery, The Warehouse, Clunes, Victoria.
Further info. and terms & conditions: clunesceramicaward.org.au
residency opportunity – Yaddo
Yaddo is a nonprofit retreat for artists in Saratoga Springs, New York. Our mission is to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for writers and artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.
We offer residencies to professional creative artists working in the following disciplines: literature, choreography, film, musical composition, painting, performance art, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and video. Artists apply individually. They are selected by panels of professional artists without regard to financial means.
Tertiary to our core mission, we build an engaged audience for the work of Yaddo artists and share arts programming, educational opportunities, and other resources with our local community and beyond. We are committed to a sustainable future for Yaddo.
monday morning eye candy: Xanthe Somers
Currently based in London, Xanthe Somers (b. 1992) is a Zimbabwean ceramicist whose work is a critical reading of extraction economies and notions of domesticity within post-colonial contexts, with a particular lens focused on the country of her birth.



















