Ryan Coppage Cone 6 Crystalline Mug 2

Holding a utilitarian object that another took the time to fully consider, form, plan, and conceive invites a certain intimacy between user and creator. The fusion of aesthetics and utility adds to this depth, such that a connection is sought in a functional piece of ceramics. As a chemistry educator, I  either formulate or choose each glaze with both function and aesthetic in mind, just as the clay body is engineered to be more durable than mass-produced wares. My work is made to be held, touched, considered, loved, and used on a daily basis; it is meant to be thrown in the sink and to break mass-produced works. In a medium often dominated by sculpture and the non-functional, I seek to provide long-lasting and more meaningful utilitarian objects in the pursuit of connection and immortality.