About this Journal

Welcome to Issue 7 of Interpreting Ceramics , which contains the winning entries in our 'Speak For Yourself' competition. We have awarded four prizes in the Open Competition and three prizes in the UK Student Competition. Jo Dahn, chair of the panel of judges, introduces the project and each of the texts is preceded by a short comment from one of the judging panel. We are grateful to all those who entered the competition and offer our congratulations to the winners. We also wish to express our appreciation to SW Arts and to the HEAD Trust for financial support which enabled us to run the competition, and to Bath Spa University for hosting the 'Speak For Yourself' day seminar held in September 2005.

This issue also contains a lengthy and hard-hitting review by Garth Clark of Richard D. Mohr's book Pottery, Politics, Art: George Ohr and the Brothers Kirkpatrick. Alongside this review we are publishing a robust reply by the author. Together these two texts raise importance issues concerning the uses of academic writing and the nature of criticism within the field of ceramics. We welcome other contributions to this debate which should be e-mailed to ICRC@uwic.ac.uk. Responses, which may be edited, will be added to this site.

A review by Linda Sandino of a book on contemporary Swedish craft, a review by Wilma Cruise of Clementina van der Walt's exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa, and an obituary of Sid Tustin, who worked with both Michael Cardew and Ray Finch at the Winchcombe Pottery, Gloucestershire for over fifty years, complete this issue. Look out for the next issue of Interpreting Ceramics later this year. This will contain the papers from the Fragmented Figure conference held at Cardiff School of Art and Design in June 2005.

Interpreting Ceramics is an initiative of a group of academic staff in the UK who have joined together under the title of Interpreting Ceramics: Research Collaboration (ICRC). Our collaboration has come about through shared research interests in recording, interrogating, interpreting and communicating the practice and history of ceramics.

The members of ICRC are committed to exploring ways in which collaborative effort, on both a national and international level, can lead to broader and more interdisciplinary research into all those categories of human activity which are indicated by the term 'ceramics'. ICRC has an interest in any practice or mode of inquiry which brings a social and cultural awareness to bear on the manufacture and consumption of objects made from ceramic materials. The fields covered would therefore include studio, industrial, architectural, traditional, sculptural and figurative ceramics as well as the relevant branches of anthropology, archaeology, material culture studies, museum studies, archiving etc.

The journal Interpreting Ceramics is the first outcome of the collaborative work of ICRC. It is the first refereed, electronic journal for ceramics and in publishing on the Internet the journal allows contributors to exploit the possibilities of new digital media as well as offering more traditional text based approaches. The journal is freely accessible, without charge. We aim to establish and maintain the highest scholarly standards for the content of the articles published. Four institutions have joint proprietorship of the journal and they are the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, the University of the West of England, Bristol and Bath Spa University College.

Editorial responsibility for Interpreting Ceramics lies with the ICRC committee, which currently consists of the members of the editorial team who are listed above. The editorial advisory board consists of thirty individuals, drawn from different disciplines, who together provide a wide range of expertise on ceramics in all its guises. A list of members of the board is provided on the web site.

Top of the page