Worldwide Inspiration – Patterned Ceramics!

Hello everyone!

Welcome back to the RT blog – we hope you have all had a lovely weekend & that you had at least a little chance to get creative! If not, don’t worry, we’ve got tons more creative inspo to share!

If you’re a regular reader of our blog, or just a fan of Rachael’s work in general, you’ll know that we LOVE patterns of all kinds! One of the best things about pattern is that it exists almost everywhere: when we look around & really begin to notice pattern, see not only those made deliberately by artists, but also those that are organic or occurring in nature. These might include happy accidents like a speckled or dripping pattern from spilling like tea or paint, or the unique & colourful markings on the wings of a butterfly!

Since pattern plays such a huge part of our visual representation of the world, it’s no surprise that as an art form, it spans across nearly every country in every culture, especially in ceramics. Pottery & ceramics have become a universal canvas for pattern, which welcomes many traditional elements in the form of shapes, colours, objects, symbols, plants, animals, typography & more! It’s one of the many reasons we love surface pattern  so much & it proves how truly versatile (& important!) it is.

So today, to give you some inspiration from places you may not have looked before, we want to share some of the traditional ceramic work of a handful of other countries. Since We can’t cover every country & every style in just one post, today we are going to cover some of the most expressive & artistic pattern styles in some parts of Europe, including (in order below) Poland, the UK, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Greece & Romania! One overarching theme is definitely botanical & floral imagery & we love how each country has interpreted this in varying styles & colours. Just click the image to see the source & to find out more! Enjoy!

  Keep checking back in the future as we cover more surface pattern & ceramic work from around there world – there is truly no end to the inspiration we can gain just by doing a little research! Have a safe, happy & creative week!

Posted by: Holly