Barbara Gittings Ceramics

 After three decades working in the fashion industry, Barbara Gittings was inspired by adult education classes in 1999 to switch her creative focus to clay. Largely self-taught, her distinctive approach combines the ancient techniques of Nerikomi and smoke firing. While traditional Japanese Nerikomi features regular geometric repetition, Gittings embraces abstraction and asymmetry, positioning her finished work uniquely within the contemporary ceramics field.

Her smoke-fired, Nerikomi porcelain vessels are deeply contemplative and sensual, projecting an inherent sense of calm and serenity designed to draw viewers in and provoke a desire to touch. In her studio, Gittings embraces inexactness, blending precise technical skills with a loose, casual application. The elemental uncertainty of working with clay – especially the random, uncontrolled shifts that occur when patterns form through the material – continually fuels her creativity. Ultimately, she views each piece as the literal manifestation of a thousand transitions.

Gittings remains fascinated by the geometry found in nature, observing how chaotic forces like weathering, sedimentation, and erosion distort initial perfect symmetry. She constantly explores the fine lines between perfection and imperfection, order and chaos, and control and spontaneity. Absorbed unconsciously, these enigmatic natural patterns emerge when she engages with the clay, directly dictating her fluid work in progress.