Garden Home Art
One-of-a-kind creations for a richer life
Your Subtitle text
Ceramics & Wall Ornaments
There are countless uses for ornaments, vessels, figurines and miniatures, especially if they are quality creations you feel good about having. Below we have a handmade wall shrine with a handmade miniature, Buddha figure made from porcelain.
This little shrine is being used to ornament the alcove above the fireplace, below the mantle where it not only adds a nice decorative touch but brings a pleasant quietude as well to the heart of the home.
(Notice the little village of handmade porcelain huts on the mantle, also created by Jaqueline, next to the handmade Ikebana vase).
The wall shrine has been designed to hang on a wall or to stand on a table. There is a little sconce in which the Buddha sits - here showing a Tibetan style of Buddha.
Both have been completely handmade, the shrine from stoneware glazed in Matt Amethyst and the Buddha has been delicately formed in white porcelain.
All these items are available in our store.
In this day of mass production it is easy to overlook or simply undervalue the genuine quality of a handmade item. We have become so used to seeing seemingly flawless creations made in the thousands by machines that we can easily dismiss a higher priced item as being 'expensive', without realizing that though it seems very similar to another, low priced item, they are, in fact, not remotely related.
Look at this vase, below. It sells in our store for $250 and that is a lot of money. But look closely at this lovely vase. It is completely handmade. Not 'hand crafted' which means somebody did something to it by hand but it was on the whole made by a machine or in a mold. This vessel was hand formed and ornamented from start to finish by our master ceramicist, Chung Ah. She made only this one and there is no other quite like it on the planet. It took many hours of dedicated work, skill and artistry to create and is probably worth thousands, not merely hundreds.
Much of Chung Ah's ceramic work is hand-built but she also throws on the wheel and some of her unique vases sell for as little as $45.0. Click here to view some of her exquisite pottery.
This little shrine is being used to ornament the alcove above the fireplace, below the mantle where it not only adds a nice decorative touch but brings a pleasant quietude as well to the heart of the home.
(Notice the little village of handmade porcelain huts on the mantle, also created by Jaqueline, next to the handmade Ikebana vase).
The wall shrine has been designed to hang on a wall or to stand on a table. There is a little sconce in which the Buddha sits - here showing a Tibetan style of Buddha.
Both have been completely handmade, the shrine from stoneware glazed in Matt Amethyst and the Buddha has been delicately formed in white porcelain.
All these items are available in our store.
In this day of mass production it is easy to overlook or simply undervalue the genuine quality of a handmade item. We have become so used to seeing seemingly flawless creations made in the thousands by machines that we can easily dismiss a higher priced item as being 'expensive', without realizing that though it seems very similar to another, low priced item, they are, in fact, not remotely related.
Look at this vase, below. It sells in our store for $250 and that is a lot of money. But look closely at this lovely vase. It is completely handmade. Not 'hand crafted' which means somebody did something to it by hand but it was on the whole made by a machine or in a mold. This vessel was hand formed and ornamented from start to finish by our master ceramicist, Chung Ah. She made only this one and there is no other quite like it on the planet. It took many hours of dedicated work, skill and artistry to create and is probably worth thousands, not merely hundreds.
Much of Chung Ah's ceramic work is hand-built but she also throws on the wheel and some of her unique vases sell for as little as $45.0. Click here to view some of her exquisite pottery.There are a number of ways to create ceramic objects. Hand-building and throwing on a potter's wheel are the most common methods. Ceramicists may use only one method or a combination of techniques to create the finished product.Hand-building can be broken down into three techniques: pinch, coil, and slab.
Pinch is the earliest method of hand-building. Pinch pots of all sizes, dating back thousands of years, can be found all over the world. A simple pinch pot is made by first rolling the clay into a ball; it should feel comfortable in the palm of the hand. The ball is then held in one hand and a hole pressed into the clay with the thumb of the other hand, leaving a thickness of about 1 cm/0.5 in at the bottom for a base. The clay is shaped into a pot by turning it slowly, and pinching the sides with the thumb on the inside and fingers on the outside.
Coil has also been used to create ceramic vessels for thousands of years. The coil method is used all over the world to create very large pots (up to 2 m/6 ft tall) for storage, planting, and decorative purposes. Coil pots are made by first creating a flat base out of clay and then rolling out large coils or round bands of clay and placing them, initially on top of the base, and then on top of each other, to create a vessel or container. The placing of the coils dictate the form of the pot – coils placed towards the outer rim will cause the pot to curve out while coils placed towards the inner rim will give the vessel an inward curve.
Slab or sheet is a very versatile hand-building method, which was used in prehistoric times to create sarcophagi (coffins) and is employed today in the creation of both functional objects (tiles, roofing, flooring) and artistic endeavours (vessels, boxes, sculpture). Slab-building simply means building with sheets of clay. The sheets can be made in a number of ways. Clay may be simply rolled out with a rolling pin; repeatedly pounded, lifted, and thrown onto a table or floor until it is flat and has an even surface; or a slab roller can be used. A slab roller is a bench with heavy rollers that can be adjusted to roll out large amounts of clay into slabs of the required thickness. Once a slab is created, the ceramicist can cut it into tiles, wrap it around a cylinder to create a vessel, or place it into a press mould.
The potter's wheel creates more uniform shapes than those made by hand-building. However, although the use of a potter's wheel is often believed to be the most dominant method of making ceramics, in some areas of the world the local clay is too rough or rocky to be used on a wheel, and traditional hand-building methods continue to be used. Vessels created on the wheel are described as ‘thrown’ – the rotating wheel throws the clay outwards while the potter's hands control and form it against the spinning force. The two main types of potter's wheels are the kick wheel and the electric wheel. The kick wheel is manual and fully operated by the potter, while the electric wheel spins when switched on.
Pinch is the earliest method of hand-building. Pinch pots of all sizes, dating back thousands of years, can be found all over the world. A simple pinch pot is made by first rolling the clay into a ball; it should feel comfortable in the palm of the hand. The ball is then held in one hand and a hole pressed into the clay with the thumb of the other hand, leaving a thickness of about 1 cm/0.5 in at the bottom for a base. The clay is shaped into a pot by turning it slowly, and pinching the sides with the thumb on the inside and fingers on the outside.
Coil has also been used to create ceramic vessels for thousands of years. The coil method is used all over the world to create very large pots (up to 2 m/6 ft tall) for storage, planting, and decorative purposes. Coil pots are made by first creating a flat base out of clay and then rolling out large coils or round bands of clay and placing them, initially on top of the base, and then on top of each other, to create a vessel or container. The placing of the coils dictate the form of the pot – coils placed towards the outer rim will cause the pot to curve out while coils placed towards the inner rim will give the vessel an inward curve.
Slab or sheet is a very versatile hand-building method, which was used in prehistoric times to create sarcophagi (coffins) and is employed today in the creation of both functional objects (tiles, roofing, flooring) and artistic endeavours (vessels, boxes, sculpture). Slab-building simply means building with sheets of clay. The sheets can be made in a number of ways. Clay may be simply rolled out with a rolling pin; repeatedly pounded, lifted, and thrown onto a table or floor until it is flat and has an even surface; or a slab roller can be used. A slab roller is a bench with heavy rollers that can be adjusted to roll out large amounts of clay into slabs of the required thickness. Once a slab is created, the ceramicist can cut it into tiles, wrap it around a cylinder to create a vessel, or place it into a press mould.
The potter's wheel creates more uniform shapes than those made by hand-building. However, although the use of a potter's wheel is often believed to be the most dominant method of making ceramics, in some areas of the world the local clay is too rough or rocky to be used on a wheel, and traditional hand-building methods continue to be used. Vessels created on the wheel are described as ‘thrown’ – the rotating wheel throws the clay outwards while the potter's hands control and form it against the spinning force. The two main types of potter's wheels are the kick wheel and the electric wheel. The kick wheel is manual and fully operated by the potter, while the electric wheel spins when switched on.
