CAREER INFORMATION CERAMIST
Ceramists design and create ceramic objects within the fields of product design or art. They produce individual pieces or small series according to their own designs or as a commission. Normally self-employed with their own workshop, ceramists make their products themselves.
The work includes a variety of activities from the design stage through to execution, ranging from managing a professional workshop to advertising their own projects.
Ceramists undertake any research needed to create a ceramic product and create designs from their ideas based on freehand or computer drawings and models.
By experimenting with ceramic materials and the different shaping techniques, they develop a project and create the object. Choosing the right clay as well as the right shaping and decorative technique to produce the object is essential to create high-quality products.
Ceramicists compile appropriate documentation of their work using photography and graphic design. They exhibit their products at appropriate venues and offer them for sale.
Other activities include managing the workshop, managing stocks of raw materials and finished products, maintaining machines and tools and ongoing administrative work. They are bound by occupational health and safety and environmental regulations.