We live in a technology-oriented world, and the pace of life is getting faster and faster.

But now I refuse the whole set of tableware and vases produced by the same factory.

This trend may reflect our desire to return to some living conditions closer to nature.

Recently, small quantities of hand-made ceramic products can be seen everywhere.

You can see them in fashionable household goods stores, such as Primary Essentials in Brooklyn and Still House in Manhattan. These ceramic products are regarded as symbols of high taste and are artistically placed in shop windows and shelves.

You can also see ceramic products on the style pages of magazines such as Kinfolk and Apartamento. They are often paired with cutting boards that keep their original shape and succulents bathed in mottled sunlight. Vogue even set aside two pages in September this year to introduce the new trend of independent ceramists.

In some innovative millennials, ceramic products have replaced furniture made of jewelry and waste wood and become a new generation of characteristic handicrafts, and the right to use selected kilns has become a new generation of identity symbols that people are keen to show off on Pinterest and Instagram. ? "Imperfect flaws (in ceramic products) have their own aesthetic feeling, and it is great to have real handmade products."

Fashion designer Steven Allen said. He filled his boutique with all kinds of American and Japanese ceramics with textured patterns and neutral colors. ? Bottle bowl cultivation, Edison's bulb lamps and lifeless flying cars were once synonymous with "cool". Nowadays, small quantities of hand-made ceramic products have suddenly become the most popular decorations.

We live in a technology-oriented world, and the pace of life is getting faster and faster. All the previous fashion trends represent things that can be seen and touched, which can balance our accelerated technological life. Now, we refuse the whole set of tableware and vases produced by the same factory. This trend also reflects our desire to return to some life conditions closer to nature.

We want to know where the native duck eggs we eat come from. We want to know where our coffee beans are grown and roasted. We also hope that the containers we use to consume these items contain more profound stories about skills and creativity.

"People are looking for something that reflects their own humanity," David Reid said. "They are gradually giving up those smooth and beautiful steel products and choosing something warmer." Reid is an experienced ceramist and co-founder of KleinReid, a ceramic company in new york.

Recently, interior designer Kelly Wearstler and ceramist Ben Mei Dan jointly launched a series of tableware decorated with gold squares. In Weissler's view, ceramic products can bring a sense of life to the room. She said: "Handmade things are very special, and they can naturally add soul and characteristics to their living space."

Robert Sullivan is a contributing editor of Vogue and has written articles about ceramic products for the magazine. He said that ceramic products are popular now because they are "obviously hand-made, and indeed hand-made".

"Ceramic products are the antidote to all electronic products," he added. Julie Carlson, editor-in-chief of Remodelista, a design website, recorded the popularity of ceramic products. "The popularity of ceramics is closely related to the' from farm to table' movement," she said. "It's this desire to know the source of the things in your kitchen."? "

It's very difficult to record and track their tracks, she said, the new Potter. At first, there seemed to be only a few potters, but now there are so many potters that we can't report them and invite them to our market. "This is probably the most obvious in Brooklyn and Queens. There is never a shortage of temporary pottery studios, clay sculpture courses and boutiques-just like the home page of the manual e-commerce platform Etsy.

Natalie Weinberg is 29 years old. A year ago, she jumped from the world of non-profit organizations to the ceramic industry and became a full-time ceramist. She likes to be in the underground studio near mccarron Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, with nine other confident new ceramists. ? Weinberg said: "Now people's demand for learning ceramic art is quite enthusiastic, and it is difficult to have a studio." She often uses textured clay dotted with black volcanic sand to make ceramic containers, and the containers she makes have striking statue shapes.

Many new york ceramists started their careers from Choplet Studio. Chop lett Studio is a ceramic studio and ceramic teaching space opened by Nadeige Choplet and her husband in Williamsburg in 2005. "At the beginning, I had four billet drawing machines, and I only needed to give people two or three classes a week." French-born Joe Pirett said. But later, it became a busy clay making center, with more than 30 green wire drawing machines and an independent studio named "Williamsburg Ceramic Center".

Despite the extra space and more schedules, Jopirit said, "We always have a waiting list full of guests waiting for our evening classes." The demand for ceramic courses has also affected universities such as Rhode Island School of Design, where the number of graduates majoring in ceramic art has increased by about 50% this year.

In addition, "we still have many students from other departments who want to take pottery classes, especially those from architecture, industrial design and furniture," said Katy Simell, the director and associate professor of pottery. "There are many people waiting for all elective courses in our department." More and more evidence shows that making ceramics is not only a hobby, but also a new creative profession-just like handmade chocolate. ? "

I have a lot of people here who happened to open Etsy accounts and then got production and wholesale orders. "Joe Pirett said that they had their own studios and quit their original jobs. There are many such things. " ? The protagonist of one of the success stories is forest Levinger. Loewinger, 3 1 year-old, now has his own studio, Workday Manual, which produces marble glazed cups, hand-carved geometric pottery bowls and ivory vases dotted with confetti-like blue spots.

His ceramic career began on 20 12. At that time, he and others shared a small booth at the Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg. Later, this small booth flourished and attracted a series of production and wholesale orders. Soon, Barnes new york boutique and American brand Anthropologie also placed orders with him.

Today, Lowenger shares a studio in Ridgewood, Queens, and employs two part-time employees. He said, "Now my business is so big that I have to ask someone to help me." Heath Ceramics Company in Sosalito, California is one of the giants in this new wave of ceramics. Healthy pottery is to the ceramic industry what Stump is to the coffee industry and Brooklyn Brewery is to the craft beer industry. This company was originally established in 1948, selling medieval modern household items; In 2003, Robin Petravich and Catherine Bailey, two designers, bought and restarted the company.

The couple arranged a series of tableware, decorative items and tiles for healthy pottery. On the one hand, they mainly work by hand, and on the other hand, they introduce some new works and cooperative projects of artists. ? Along the way, they transformed Healthy Ceramics from a niche company with sales of only about $6,543,800+in 2003 into a world-famous company with 200 employees and annual sales of up to $20 million. This year 10, the company was awarded the National Design Award by Cooper Hewitt of the Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian Design Museum).

But the couple said that, like many other emerging ceramists, one of the reasons why they were initially attracted to pottery was that it allowed them to supervise the whole design process from beginning to end. "One of the great beauty of clay sculpture is that it can complete all the steps by itself, and it doesn't need to spend too many resources to make it," Pei Cuiwei said. "You can't buy a furnace to forge metal objects, but clay, billet puller or mold and kiln are relatively easy to get."

Anyone who has made a crooked ceramic ashtray like a child can tell you that it is exciting to see plastic clay made into useful ceramic utensils by his own hands. ? The difference between this new wave of ceramics and the ceramics you made in the past is that the end users of the ceramic ashtrays you made are no longer your aunt who smokes heavily-this time, the guy who makes coffee for you, the chef who searches for raw materials and the design blogger next door are all using these ashtrays.

(Text/Tim Mycroft)