We will be doing a demo of lidded projects tomorrow.
Ayumi Horie developed a technique for making earthenware pieces without water while she was a student at Alfred University in western New York State. Today, this 42-year-old potter creates plates and bowls using the nontraditional method because it “allows for spontaneity and a kind of gestural quality that is harder to get when clay is wet.”
Ms. Horie’s objects are decorated with hand-scratched drawings that often feature monkeys, birds, dogs or other animals (the dessert plate, pictured, is $68). Inspired by Japanese pop culture, Japanese folk craft and early American primitive art, the work “can easily be dismissed as cute until you see it as a strategy,” she said.
“It’s very much about eliciting a kind of softness in people, through cuteness, humor or imperfection,” she added. Available at ayumihorie.com.