Featured Articles

  • The Power of Clay: Abbie Kasoff and Say It With Clay

    When New Jersey ceramicist Abbie Kasoff was tirelessly working to build her human services non-profit organization Say It With Clay in the early 2000s, she was driven by her determination “that clay would do for others what it did for me.”  In love with the medium since her high school years, Kasoff returned again and again to working in clay, seeking the healing and transformative mental state that is called “flow.”  She came to understand the power of clay as a means of communication, a way to express feelings and ideas and to revisit them in a finished product – in a “second-stage give-back.”

  • Fireborn Studios: Paired for Success

    Pittsburgh institution Fireborn Studios is launching a new series of workshops at their Southside studio.  Owners Dan Vito and Donna Hetrick are potters, educators, and business entrepreneurs who have thrived in a partnership and marriage for over three decades, a veritable success story in how to carve out a life as working artists.

  • Standard Ceramic Expands Technical Department

    Potters and distributors who call Standard Ceramics are familiar with Julie Hregdovic, who has offered expert help from our Technical Department since 1986.  We are pleased to announce that Lindsey Pauline, who came to Standard in July of 2020, will be joining Technical Director Julie Hregdovic in the Technical Department as our new Technician.  This expansion reflects Standard’s commitment to quality control and customer service and will ensure that all customers and distributors will have a timely and expert response to their queries.

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  • Throw Down at Standard

    THROW DOWN 
    @
    STANDARD
    November 12th &13th 10 am- 2 pm
    $10 Registration Fee
    Call 412-489-5240 or email orders@ceramicsupplypittsburgh.com
    to secure your time slot in the Throw Down.
    Only 20 Slots available!
    each contestant will get 5lbs of clay, a basic tool kit, and 30 minutes to make the piece and clean off their wheel.
    Judging will take place a 2pm on Saturday November 13th by Alyssa...

  • A Layered Approach: Philip M. Soucy and Brian Peters

    Two Pittsburgh artists will bring their work to ClayPlace@Standard for “A Layered Approach,” a joint exhibition this coming October.  Philip M. Soucy and Brian Peters share a similar technique of stacking clay coils but have a vastly different approach to the method.  Soucy’s organic works are built by hand; Peters’ precise pieces are created using a 3-D printer.  Each reveals a respect and affection for the material and creates pieces that challenge our ideas about humanity’s history of building and altering its environment.

  • A Layered Approach: Philip M. Soucy and Brian Peters

    Two Pittsburgh artists will bring their work to ClayPlace@Standard for “A Layered Approach,” a joint exhibition this coming October.  Philip M. Soucy and Brian Peters share a similar technique of stacking clay coils but have a vastly different approach to the method.  Soucy’s organic works are built by hand; Peters’ precise pieces are created using a 3-D printer.  Each reveals a respect and affection for the material and creates pieces that challenge our ideas about humanity’s history of building and altering its environment.

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  • Fabio J. Fernández Joins Greenwich House as Pottery Director

    Greenwich House’s new Director of the Pottery Fabio J. Fernández measures his life against the maxim, “Realize your values in your work.”   This immigrant son of a carpenter and a seamstress brings his desire to do good to an organization that has stood for over 120 years, doing good for countless New Yorkers.  Established in 1902 as part of the “settlement house” movement, Greenwich House served Irish and Italian immigrants, offering social services and education to help them assimilate into American life.  The art education programs grew out of training that provided young people with needed technical skills for employment in trades.  Drawing on Italian culture, programs in woodworking, stone cutting, and technical drawing were some of the first courses offered.  Pottery was introduced in 1909 and by the 1920s was an integral part of Greenwich House’s developing mission: to improve quality of life through creative work.  Fernández stands ready to carry on this tradition, bringing his fifteen years of experience as Curator and Executive Director of Boston’s Society of Arts+Crafts.

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  • New Chapter at Contemporary Craft

    Pittsburgh’s Contemporary Craft begins its second half-century this year with a new Executive Director in a new facility in a new neighborhood, carrying on the tradition of what began as The Store for Arts and Crafts and People-Made Things in 1971.  Southwest Pennsylvania native Rachel Saul Rearick steps in to take her place among the leaders of the organization founded by Elizabeth Rockwell Raphael. Begun with the intention of providing support for artists working in craft materials, Contemporary Craft retains that mission, with fifty years of showcasing work, supporting artists, and encouraging the Pittsburgh community to explore creativity through craft.

  • New Chapter at Contemporary Craft

    Pittsburgh’s Contemporary Craft begins its second half-century this year with a new Executive Director in a new facility in a new neighborhood, carrying on the tradition of what began as The Store for Arts and Crafts and People-Made Things in 1971.  Southwest Pennsylvania native Rachel Saul Rearick steps in to take her place among the leaders of the organization founded by Elizabeth Rockwell Raphael. Begun with the intention of providing support for artists working in craft materials, Contemporary Craft retains that mission, with fifty years of showcasing work, supporting artists, and encouraging the Pittsburgh community to explore creativity through craft.

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  • The Future of Ceramics Education: Saratoga Art Center Resident Artists Paige O’Toole and Mark Tarabula

    The 21st century is emerging as a time of radical change in human interaction.  The digital revolution that brought us into the new millennium pervades every aspect of modern life, from our homes, our schools, and our workplaces, to our very sense of who we are and what we aspire to in life.  For young artists, navigating this new world requires reevaluation of historic norms and a keen sense of how the new artist stands as interpreter and philosopher for a new age. Mark Tarabula and Paige O’Toole are ceramic artists in residency at Saratoga Clay Arts Center in Schuylerville, New York.  At the beginning of what each hopes will be a long career in the arts, the artists recently shared their ideas about the current state of ceramic education, exhibition, marketing and purpose.

  • The Future of Ceramics Education: Saratoga Art Center Resident Artists Paige O’Toole and Mark Tarabula

    The 21st century is emerging as a time of radical change in human interaction.  The digital revolution that brought us into the new millennium pervades every aspect of modern life, from our homes, our schools, and our workplaces, to our very sense of who we are and what we aspire to in life.  For young artists, navigating this new world requires reevaluation of historic norms and a keen sense of how the new artist stands as interpreter and philosopher for a new age. Mark Tarabula and Paige O’Toole are ceramic artists in residency at Saratoga Clay Arts Center in Schuylerville, New York.  At the beginning of what each hopes will be a long career in the arts, the artists recently shared their ideas about the current state of ceramic education, exhibition, marketing and purpose.

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  • Lillstreet Art Center Stands Firm During Pandemic Year

     A city the size of Chicago offers a multitude of venues for the exploration of human creativity, with studios and galleries throughout the metropolitan area and its suburbs, but the city’s artistic nexus can be found at Lillstreet Art Center.  For over four decades, the center has provided a home for artists of all varieties.  Founded in 1975 by current Director Bruce Robbins and Martin Cohen, Lillstreet has stood as the gateway for the human need to interpret the world through art.  As we approach the one-year anniversary of a world pandemic, Director Robbins looks back on a year marked by innovative solutions to unique challenges.

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