Great Pots

"Published in conjunction with the exhibition Great pots: contemporary ceramics from function to fantasy at The Newark Museum, February 14-June 1, 2003"--T.p. verso.

Listen to the artists of the Brazilian Northeast. Their work, they say, comes of continuity and creativity. Continuity runs along lines of learning toward social coherence. Creativity brings challenges and deep personal satisfaction. What they say and do in Brazil aligns with ethnographic evidence from New Mexico and North Carolina; from Ireland, Portugal, and Italy; from Nigeria, Turkey, India, and Bangladesh; from China and Japan. This book is about that, about folk art as a sign of human unity.

A guide to the handy kitchen appliance, plus a range of recipes, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning movie critic. In The Pot and How to Use It, Roger Ebert—Pulitzer Prize–winning film critic, admitted “competent cook,” and long-time electric rice cooker enthusiast—gives readers a charming, practical guide to this handy and often-overlooked kitchen appliance. While The Pot and How to Use It contains numerous and surprisingly varied recipes for electric rice cookers, it is much more than a cookbook. Originating from a blog entry on Roger’s popular Web site, the book also includes readers’ comments and recipes alongside Roger’s own discerning insights and observations on why and how we cook. With an introduction by vegetarian cookbook author Anna Thomas and expert assistance from recipe consultant and nutritionist Yvonne Nienstadt, The Pot and How to Use It is perfect for fans of Roger’s superb writing, as well as anyone looking to incorporate the convenience and versatility of electric rice cookers into his or her kitchen repertoire.

'Stunning pictures and packed full of really good advice and inspiration' – Monty Don --------------- Pots are everywhere in Sarah Raven's garden at Perch Hill. Every corner comes to life with their colour and vibrancy. A Year Full of Pots overbrims with year-round inspiration, planting ideas and expert advice from Sarah Raven, the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Year Full of Flowers and A Year Full of Veg. Accessible and rewarding, growing flowers in pots is a simple and enjoyable way to enhance any space, from small city plots to huge gardens. Get the pots right and your garden will take on a cheerful energy of its own. They are the bubbles in the champagne, the cherries on the cake; the final flourish in making a garden beautiful. And with pots, there is one iron rule: more is more. Discover practical design tips that will really enhance your containers. Use ingenious tricks when combining flower colours such as choosing a BRIDE (the star of the show), a BRIDESMAID (similar to the bride but smaller and less conspicuous) and a GATECRASHER (the colour contrast, which brings the whole thing to life). Learn all about the types of forms and plant structures – THRILLER, FILLER, PILLAR and SPILLER – and how to put them to best use. And take on the simplest of ideas, such as raising flower pots on to a wall or table so you see more of them, for instant impact. Following the seasons, A Year Full of Pots shows you how to make your own evolving tapestry of colour through long-lasting container combinations. All the flowers and planting schemes Sarah has tried and tested over the decades are in here, plus the design principles that will work for you at any scale, whether you have one pot or a garden full of them. 'An archipelago of inspirational potted paradises awaits on every page of this beautiful but also hugely helpful book' – Arthur Parkinson

In today’s insta-everything world, cast iron reminds us of a simpler time. A time when things were built to last, not break within a year. A well-seasoned pan is a cooking Swiss Army knife. A solid flat pot is the ultimate campfire jack-of-all-trades, and the humble potjie pot is more than just a pot. It’s our version of low and slow and it has some important lessons to teach. It forces you to relax and enjoy the ride, and to realise that the best things really are worth waiting for. It’s a delicious goal for friends and family to come together and work towards over the course of the day – the ingredients prep, the fire prep, the building of flavour layers and watching the potjie’s bulging belly whisper away. These are steps required for a great potjie day, and the best part is that you get to do it while chatting and laughing with a beer in hand.

DANIEL JOHNSTON, raised on a farm in Randolph County, returned from Thailand with a new way to make monumental pots. Back home in North Carolina, he built a log shop and a whale of a kiln for wood-firing. Then he set out to create beautiful pots, grand in scale, graceful in form, and burned bright in a blend of ash and salt. With mastery achieved and apprentices to teach, Daniel Johnston turned his brain to massive installations. First, he made a hundred large jars and lined them along the rough road that runs past his shop and kiln. Next, he arranged curving clusters of big pots inside pine frames, slatted like corn cribs, to separate them from the slick interiors of four fine galleries in succession. Then, in concluding the second phase of his professional career, Daniel Johnston built an open-air installation on the grounds around the North Carolina Museum of Art, where 178 handmade, wood-fired columns march across a slope in a straight line, 350 feet in length, that dips and lifts with the heave while the tops of the pots maintain a level horizon. In 2000, when he was still Mark Hewitt's apprentice, Daniel Johnston met Henry Glassie, who has done fieldwork on ceramic traditions in the United States, Brazil, Italy, Turkey, Bangladesh, China, and Japan. Over the years, during a steady stream of intimate interviews, Glassie gathered the understanding that enabled him to compose this portrait of Daniel Johnston, a young artist who makes great pots in the eastern Piedmont of North Carolina.