Jomon Ware
One of Japan's oldest art forms, when the earliest soft earthenware was coil-made, decorated by hand-impressed rope patterns, and baked in the open.

Terracotta Warriors
Fine art earthenware of Chinese clay warriors.

Minoan Pottery
A useful tool for dating the mute Minoan civilization. Its restless sequence of rapidly-maturing artistic styles reveal something of Minoan patrons' pleasure in novelty while they assist archaeologists assign relative dates to the strata of their sites. Pots that contained oils and ointments, exported from 18th century BC Crete, have been found at sites through the Aegean islands and mainland Greece, onCyprus, along the coastal Syria and in Egypt, showing the wide trading contacts of the Minoans. The extremely fine palace pottery called Kamares ware, and the Late Minoan all-over patterned "Marine style" are the high points of the Minoan pottery tradition.

Greek Vase Painting
There are two main styles in Greek vase painting – black figure and red figure. Mostly before about 530 BC people painted in black figure, and after that time people gradually began to paint in red figure.

Mayan Vase Painting, Mexico Mayan vase paintings are more akin to the art of the modern period than the art of any other pre-modern people. The principal valuation seems to have been on artistic quality rather than adherence to standardized forms.

Mimbres Pottery, American Southwest
Contemporary research on the Mimbres culture relies heavily on comparisons with more modern puebloan pottery and practices, as widespread commercial looting has destroyed many sites over the years (Hegmon 2002). According to such comparisons, as well as the presence of female burial sites complete with pottery-making tools, it is generally accepted that the artists responsible for creating the pottery were women, who received their training from relatives (Hegmon 2002). Although there are no maker’s marks on any of the pottery, Leblanc has argued that the most spectacular designs were created by one or a few painters. Research conducted by Leblanc and Ellis in 2001 suggests that a handful of potters making between 50 and 100 bowls a year could account for all Mimbres black-on-white ceramic production. If Leblanc and Ellis are correct, the Mimbres represent a different model of craft production in which specialists were not concentrated in one area, but spread throughout the society (Hegmon 2002).

Celadon, China
A term for ceramics denoting both a type of glaze and a ware of a specific color, also called celadon. This type of ware was invented in ancient China, primarily in Zhejiang Province.

Lusterware, Middle East and Spain
A type of pottery or porcelain with a metallic glaze that gives the effect of iridescence, produced by metallic oxides in an overglaze finish, which is given a second firing at a lower temperature in a "muffle kiln", reduction kiln, which excludes oxygen.

Ming Porcelain, China
A predilection for color and painted design, and an openness to foreign forms.

Mojolica, Italy
A piece of pottery had to be produced by a particular technique. Soft and porous earthenware pieces are baked at low temperature, till they reach the ‘biscuit stage’. The buff body then becomes pale yellowish in color and is covered by opaque enamel, made out of metal-oxides like tin or lead. Once the lustrous background of the piece dries, various design elements are coated with metal-oxide glazes, in vivid colors. The piece is then fired at high temperature. A second clear glaze overcoat is finally applied and the piece is baked again, to give shape to bright-colored majolica potteries.

Shigaraki ware, Japan
Pottery and stoneware made in Shigaraki area, Japan. The kiln is one of ‘The Six Old Kilns’ in Japan.

Teabowls, Japan
Bowls are thrown by hand, and some bowls are extremely valuable. Irregularities and imperfections are prized: they are often featured prominently as the "front" of the bowl.

Josiah Wedgwood, England
An English potter, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery.

American Art Pottery
Rookwood Pottery traces its roots in Cincinnati, Ohio back more than 100 years ago. World-renowned for impeccable design and craftsmanship.

Notable 20th Century Artists
Pablo Picasso
A Spanish painter, draughtsman, and sculptor who lived most of his adult life in France. He is best known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and Guernica(1937), his portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

Shoji Hamada
A Japanese potter. He was a significant influence on studio pottery of the twentieth century, and a major figure of the mingei folk-art movement, establishing the town of Mashiko as a world-renowned pottery centre.

Bernard Leach
A British studio potter and art teacher. He is regarded as the "Father of British studio pottery.

Lucy Lewis
Lucy's pottery is made from a gray claybody and formed by hand using coils. After the pot is shaped and dried, a white slip is applied. Without the slip the mineral paints would run off the pot. Next the design is applied using mineral paints and a brush made from the Yucca plant. This small brush holds more paint and makes finer lines than regular brushes bought at a store. Finally on a day when the weather is right for a firing, a small number of finished pieces are carefully pit-fired. Results are rarely 100%. Some pieces will end up cracked, the background on others will be gray rather than white (these will need to be refired), but a few will be wonderful. After going through this process one learns why these pieces should be well taken care of and carefully preserved.

Ruth Duckworth
A modernist sculptor who specialized in ceramics. Her sculptures, as well as wall sculptures and monumental works, are mostly untitled. She is best known for Clouds over Lake Michigan, a wall sculpture.

Marguerite Wildenhain
A French-born American ceramic artist, educator and author.

Beatrice Woods
An American artist and studio potter, who late in life was dubbed the "Mama of Dada," and served as a partial inspiration for the character of Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron's 1997 film, Titanic.

Peter Voulkos
Potter who also paints, makes prints, and works in bronze. Images including an extensive slide show, news, biography and exhibition information.

Rudio Autio
An American sculptor, best known for his figurative ceramic vessels.

Robert Arneson
Was an American sculptorand professor of ceramics in the Art department at UC Davis for four decades. He died in 1992.

Linda Arbuckle
Linda's work in majolica-glazed earthenware has been recognized through an Artists' Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a Florida Individual Artists' Fellowship. Artist-in-residence positions in Wales and the People's Republic of China have provided further balance of Eastern and Western resources in her works.

Patti Warashina
Warashina is a celebrated northwest artist who has won many prestigious awards in the art world. She has also taught art for the past 25 years.