About Lora Rust

• LOCATED: Atlanta, GA
• MATERIALS: Porcelain
• SURFACE: Glaze
• PROCESS: Wheel thrown then altered. Soda fired to Cone 7

I attribute my passion for my craft to an abundance of ceramic art in my home growing up. An early admiration for the artistic elements of design, form, and functionality were incorporated into my family’s everyday life. When expressing myself artistically, my methods were always tactile – sewing, quilting and needlepointing at an early age, and then clay in high school and college. These modes of creativity made sense to me because they all utilized a pattern or a grid.

I am fascinated with pattern. Working in porcelain, my forms are primarily thrown and altered and decorated with lush patterns using a unique process of pushing the clay with personally designed tools at a soft leather hard stage. Designs and patterns found in Gothic Architecture mixed with the fluidity of Art Nouveau are strong influences for my work. Inspiration from textile and fabric design provides movement to the texture on the form. I fire my work in a soda kiln where sodium vapors in the firing glaze the pieces, enhancing and interacting with form and surface.

My newest body of work of porcelain “quilts” explores the memory and legacy of my mother’s quilting and needlepoint within my medium of ceramics. I texture and fold the delicate porcelain squares to “quilt” the clay. The weaving of the squares with wire brings a reminder that memories can be fragile and elusive but durable representations can be treasured.