Andersen Design Economic Evolution Discourse

Brenda started the tradition of using ceramics to express very personal art as shown in this mug designed by Weston and decorated by Brenda, circa early 1950's Weston and Brenda Andersen are recognized as an important historical figure in the ceramic and design fields. This weekend we were visiting with a New York antique dealer and historian, who came to us with a recommendation from Eva Zeisel's daughter, At the time of our first introduction, he was looking for industrial design drawings of the fifties era and he came to our house and purchased a group of drawings which Dad had done when a student at Pratt. On a day as I was taking photographs, Weston  engaged in an animated dialogue about the displays. But this time around the antique dealer was looking for pieces to display in the upcoming antique show at the pier in New York City scheduled for this November. It is an international antique show. Our dealer is going to have a display case

When my parents decided to create a handcrafted product, affordable to the middle class, they "innovated " their own category which existed somewhere between factory made table top ceramics and handcrafted art ceramics sold in high-end art galleries. There has always been a great deal taking place in ceramics that does not fall into any of these categories because ceramics attracts so many individual artists working in many different ways, and so this statement is made  within the frame work of larger categories, which are used by galleries, organizations, competitions, shows and governments. For instance design shows tend to focus on designs that are reproduced in a factory setting. For some, factory settings have a bad name  as a throwback to the days of the "sweat shops" but that is not what I intend here. Factory reproduction uses "precision methods" which often involve the use of jiggering machines to create the desired uniformity . They usually