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Jordan Munro | Episode 1243
Clay Call
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What makes a good design for one of your pieces?
Yeah, I definitely think it’s a combo. You need to be able to be draw and do design with design. For me, it’s definitely it has to be usable. I have to be able to use it in every scenario. I have to put it in a microwave, put it in a dishwasher. go and do my goat chores and it needs to be used. So that goes into my design.
Do you feel like design is something that you notice or something you don’t notice?
I feel like good design is something you don’t notice. I feel like it’s something in your hand and you just, you know it feels right and that’s why you grab that mug every time.
Because your work is definitely functional, do you feel like the function is more important than a design or the function has to fit into the design?
The function has to fit into the design. And I feel like that’s how I come up with a lot of my designs is I think of what I would want something for and that’s what I make it for.
Have you ever made something that was technically correct, but still felt like it was a bit dead or a bit flat?
All the time.
What’s the difference between something that feels alive and when it feels dead?
I feel like you just have to make so many iterations of something and be able to use each one in order to know that. Because I feel like when you draw it on a piece of paper or you just make one of something, you don’t get that whole experience.
You have “decorations” on your pieces, but is decoration the same as design?
I don’t, that’s a hard question. No, but yes, I guess it depends on the potter or the maker. I feel like it would be very subjective on whether or not the decoration, because you could have what I have without the images. But I feel like it increases what I think each piece is worth in my mind and how I appreciate a piece if I add a design.
You don’t tend to clutter your work like a collage with a lot of stuff going on and a lot of moving parts. Why is subtlety or a simple look such a strong design?
I definitely find with screen printing, I’ve moved backwards with adding too many details. But it’s just that you you only learn from putting too much on a pot. And once you’ve put too much, you decide that that’s not what works and then you scale back. But I feel like you have to hit that point in order to find that that is too much.
Is it harder to design something beautiful or design something people want to live with every day?
I feel like it’s harder to design something people want to live with every day because I feel like you can make something beautiful and people will just look at it. But if somebody wants to use it every day, I feel like you have a competition with the 50 other mugs in their cupboard and just being beautiful sometimes isn’t enough. It has to be functional and it has to be beautiful.
Book
Developing Glazes by Greg Daly
The Kiln Book by Frederick L. Olsen
Contact
Instagram: @highcountryceramics