Ceramics and Pottery

[lavish sparrow]

Ceramics is a wide-ranging category of art, encompassing everything from functional tableware to ornate sculptures. Pottery, a specific type of ceramics, involves the shaping and firing of clay objects. This ancient art form remains vibrant today. Under the heading of ceramics, there are various types of materials that are made by shaping and firing an inorganic, non-metallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Some of the materials included under ceramics are:

• Earthenware: a porous ceramic material that is often glazed and used for pottery, tiles, and bricks.
• Stoneware: a dense ceramic material that is fired at a higher temperature than earthenware and is more durable and resistant to water.
• Porcelain: a fine ceramic material that is fired at a very high temperature, resulting in a translucent, white, and smooth surface.
• Bone china: a type of porcelain that is mixed with bone ash to give it a warm, ivory color and high strength.

Industrial ceramic materials that are made from elements such as silicon, carbon, aluminum, boron, and titanium have various applications in engineering, electronics, and aerospace industries.

For a great collection of DALL-E keywords that work with ceramics and pottery see the Collection created by @night hound at https://labs.openai.com/sc/c0w61pitOu8zy3Tls9uoZKmW
Here are some sample prompts made with Bing Image Creator:
“a porcelain figurine of a capybara”
“a hand-fired earthenware teapot and tea cups in japanese style. earth tones and motif.”
“an Etruscan amphora of the Pontic group, c. 540 BCE”

[night hound]

I enjoyed testing all the keywords with good old dalle2.

As it is mentioned in the original post already, ceramics can be classified into various categories such as pottery (including earthenware, stoneware, and faience) and porcelain (including soft-paste, hard-paste, and bone china).

The collection was created, to aim to compile all synonyms and terms related to ceramics and pottery, analyzing how well the dalle2 understands them. For testing, a very neutral and simplified prompt is being used, (subject + medium)

While the majority of these mediums are enough to affect the prompt, some of them need extra context or determinatives for the model to understand what we are looking for. E.g., China, enamel, slip, Grès, Terra Sigillata, Thrown, etc

[wet atlas]

Combining contrasting styles and terms for pottery can create unique and interesting results! Here are some different examples combining the more delicate “fine china”* with the more rugged “terracotta.”

Prompt 1: ”A beautiful vase that blends aspects of fine china and terracotta.”
Prompt 2: “A beautiful vase that is half fine china and half terracotta.”
Prompt 3: “A beautiful vase made of fine china with terracotta flowers in it.”
(Bing’s Image Creator)

[past relic]

In a surprisingly lot of cases Bing image creator can faithfully recreate objects in certain materials. Here is the same prompt for several materials.

Prompt: A <material> pottery with a hot pepper motif.
Materials:

• Malachite
• Agate
• Chrysocolla Chalcedony
• Hureaulite

[opaque notch]

Ceramics and pottery are a very broad subject. I suppose craftsmanship and artistic techniques are just as wide.

I will talk about Pablo Picasso, a great artist whom I love very much. 2023 celebrates the 50th anniversary of his death.

🔴 Pablo Ruiz PICASSO, October 25, 1881 – April 8, 1973 was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theater designer who spent most of his adult life in France.
One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, inventing constructed sculpture, co-inventing collage...

🔴🟡 PICASSO AND CERAMICS: A VALLAURIAN DESTINY!

A famous painter and original sculptor, Pablo Picasso hung up his hat in Vallauris on the Cote d’Azur France, to expand his talent with a new art: creating ceramics. And as a result, he left a definitive mark on the history of the Cote d’Azur with his original works.

🟡🟢🔵 VALLAURIS, PICASSO’S ADOPTED HOME

Pablo Picasso’s ceramics evoke a bright period. Furthermore, the artist devoted a lot of time to this over the last twenty years of his life. He started his first creations as of 1947, seduced by the <town with a hundred potters>. It was in the heart of his villa nestled on the hills of Vallauris that his creativity was set free. Between <the time he spent in> his workshop in Fournas, where he created numerous paintings and sculptures, the master began an innovative artistic process in the Madoura workshop for ceramics...

After many tests, I ended up being satisfied with this simple little collection of faience dishes with colors that I found pretty together

🔤 Prompt: Series of magnificent <plates, mugs, bowls> with a diameter of 25 cm, Terre de faience and glazed, matt, painted in red, yellow, green, blue, gray colors.
DALL.E via Bing Image Creator

[fair owl]

Originally painted and colored realistically, the Terracotta army was made as a protection in the afterlife for the first emperor of China. Every soldier has its own unique features, although they have the same layout of armor and weapons depending on their role in the army. The officers tend to be taller than the regular soldiers. Besides soldiers there is entertainment: acrobats, strongmen and others.

[drifting arrow]

The clay maquette plays a vital role in the world of entertainment. These sculptures, often meticulously detailed, act as the bridge between a vague concept and the final form we eventually see on screen. Whether it's an Uruk-Hai in The Lord of The Rings (eventually realised as prosthetics worn by actors), or Spider-Man from Into The Spider-Verse (a fully 3D animated movie character), clay maquettes offer creators a hands-on way to explore and refine their character's design. They can be used as scale references for 2D animators, ensuring consistent proportions even at confusing angles (like Genie from Aladdin in the 90s.) Even though technological advancements mean that character concept can now be a wholly digital process, this tangible and collaborative method is still widely used in the filmmaking industry.

DALL·E seems to understand the concept of a Clay Maquette quite well, though you still need to be careful not to reference colours in your prompt if you want this raw look.

• Image 1: "a detailed clay maquette of an Uruk-Hai from The Lord of The Rings"
• Image 2: "a detailed clay maquette of an owl librarian"

Maquettes tend to be photographed as close-up portraits to show off the details, so that's what DALL·E will tend towards. When I want to discourage this, I add the word 'plinth' to encourage DALL·E to display the base of the sculpture.

• Image 3: "a detailed clay maquette of an owl librarian, plinth"

Now that it's moved away from a close-up portrait, it's only giving me owls and not owl librarians, so to encourage an anthropomorphised owl again I will add the word 'character'.

• Image 4: "a detailed clay maquette of an owl librarian character, plinth"

All images generated with Bing Image Creator

[warm lotus]

Tiles have been used to decorate buildings for thousands of years, dating back to ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and Assyria. Decorative images can be on a single tile, or formed by multiple tiles together:

Tile: individual units featuring diverse designs from solid colors to intricate patterns

Tile Panel: arrangements of multiple tiles forming larger designs, often depicting scenes or patterns

Mosaic: small colored pieces arranged to create patterns, images, and designs

Try adding references to specific eras, styles, places or artists, to see the effect on your subject. Here are some examples made with Bing Image Creator:

Image 1: "single tile, Victorian, Shetland pony"
Image 2: "tile panel, art nouveau, Shetland pony"
Image 3: "mosaic tiles, ancient Roman, Shetland pony"

[lavish sparrow]

Prompt: A Mesopotamian clay tablet inscribed with cuneiform markings, circa 3400 BC – Made with Bing Image Creator.

In Mesopotamian culture, clay tablets and pottery tiles had distinct roles. Clay tablets, created from earth and water, were used for writing and recording information, including cuneiform, a wedge-shaped script developed around 3400 B.C. These tablets were inscribed while wet and sun-baked to preserve the markings.

Pottery tiles, on the other hand, were mainly for decorative purposes like wall reliefs and mosaics. Unlike clay tablets, they were glazed and fired, making them too hard for writing.

In summary, while both were made from clay, clay tablets were used for writing and record-keeping, whereas pottery tiles were used decoratively. The two were not used interchangeably in Mesopotamian culture.

[warm lotus]

Sometimes small details and context can transform an image, enhancing the emotional impact or making the image feel more 'real'.
For example, we never see a pristine Mesopotamian clay tablet in real life, so you can describe the condition of the subject (uneven edges, some damage), and also put it in a real life context (field archaeology photo in situ).

Prompt: A Mesopotamian clay tablet inscribed with cuneiform markings, circa 3400 BC, uneven edges, some damage. field archaeology photo in situ
(made in Bing Image Creator)

[rapid ravine]

The world of ceramics is vast, encompassing a myriad of techniques, styles, and materials. While the previous discussions have touched upon the various types of ceramics and their historical significance, there's another dimension worth exploring: the tactile sensation and visual intricacies of ceramic textures and forms.

Ceramics can range from the smooth, glossy finish of porcelain to the rough, earthy texture of terracotta. By specifying the texture in our prompts, we can get a more nuanced representation of the ceramic piece.

Prompt: "wide photo of a unique vase with a glossy light mint-colored porcelain top and a matte terracotta base."

Ceramics aren't just limited to bowls, vases, and plates. There are countless forms, from abstract sculptures to intricate figurines.

**Prompt 1: ** "A ceramic sculpture inspired by Salvador Dali's melting clocks."

Prompt 2: "A ceramic sculpture inspired by Salvador Dali's melting forms, soft pink muted tones on a neutral background."

While ceramics primarily involve clay, they can be combined with other materials for added visual interest.

Prompt: "A porcelain teapot with a golden handle and a gold leaf design."

(all made with Bing Image Creator)