Ceramic Review back catalogue

This morning a very large box was delivered and inside – beneath all the old plastic bags and little polystyrene sausages – was a treasure trove. A musty treasure trove that smelled of old attics and charity shops: a back catalogue of sixty issues of Ceramic Review. Sixty issues! In fact an almost complete decade of issues from Autumn 1983 to Autumn 1993.

Needless to say I’m completely over-excited. None of these issues are available to buy anymore from the magazine archives themselves except as individually photocopied articles at £3.00 a go. So to get a whole decade of issues in such good condition is a real find. (Oxfam on Ebay by the way…)

Just looking at the covers is already interesting and the eighties typeface on many of the adverts has an old familiar charm. No doubt there’ll be elements of the magazines that show the changing fashions in ceramics – and having a bit of an historical overview is certainly something I lack at the moment. But a pot is a pot and most ceramics seem to transcend the time they’re made in. So I’m really looking forward to learning all sorts of practical tips on throwing, glazing, firing and so on; things that remain the same whatever decade.

I don’t think I’ll be short of inspiration anymore, although I might be short of shelf space. Where am I going to put sixty magazines?!