Behind the scenes, filming new docs in USA

Photo by Jay Goldmark

Over the last two weeks, I had the exciting opportunity to film two new documentary films for WeLoveClay.com alongside photographer Jay Goldmark. The films feature two of Americas leading ceramics artists, Randy Johnston and Warren MacKenzie. While in America, we filmed and edited a behind the scenes promo video which you can see here. 

Be sure to take a look at WeLoveClay.com to get updates as to when the documentaries are made available to view online and subscribe to the new We Love Clay Youtube channel for more previews and behind the scenes videos.

Fresh back from a trip to Minnesota, our We Love Clay film and photography team (@jay_goldmark and @jonnylewisfilms) have brought back some beautiful footage for our major new film project. Our subject? As some of you guessed in our recent teaser, two of America’s giants of ceramics: Randy Johnston and Warren MacKenzie. Pictured here are Just a few of Jay’s captured moments with Warren, who at 94 remains one of the very last living links with Bernard Leach, the potter and writer who revolutionised studio pottery in the 1930s and ‘40s and galvanised a whole new generation of makers. Warren himself is responsible for his own major ceramics revival: returning from an apprenticeship served in Leach’s St Ives pottery throwing the catalogue standard range, he set up his own pottery in Minnesota drawing upon the Mingei philosophy of Leach, Hamada and Soetsu Yanagi, the philosopher who first coined the term. Mingei translates, roughly, as ‘folk art’: in his writings, Yanagi sought to demonstrate the overlooked beauty in utilitarian objects made by anonymous craftsmen and women throughout the ages. Its core principles - to make things for everyday use, and at reasonable expense - formed the core of Warren’s own philosophy. Through his dedication to pottery, both in his wonderful, ‘casual’ pots and his teaching legacy, he has seen a pilgrimage of young potters flock to the Mid-West where ceramics continues to play a vital part in local communities. If you’d like to see the trailer for our new MacKenzie / Johnston project, simply sign-up at weloveclay.com (link in bio) and we’ll send a link your way. In the meantime, look out for more news and pics from our American trip, and more general updates on the development of our new site! / #weloveclay #newsite #comingsoon2018 #goldmark #warrenmackenzie #randyjohnston #studioceramics #studiopottery #americanpottery #minnesota #mingei #mingeisota #functionalceramics

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