A Rookwood Pottery project

Adapting a Shirayamadani sculpture

Rookwood Pottery was founded in Cincinnati, OH in 1876, and became one of America's finest art potteries in the late 19th century and beyond. Rookwood still produces pottery and tile in Cincinnati. Visit their website and learn the history here. 

Kataro Shirayamadani (1865-1948) was a Japanese artist who worked at Rookwood for five decades as a painter and designer. In 1928 he sculpted the Monkey Paperweight, still a popular product at Rookwood (left).  In 2012, Rookwood asked me to recreate the monkey on a smaller scale with a smaller footprint, to create the Monkey Ornament (right):

This is the plaster model of the ornament and the block (original) mold. this mold was used in the factory to generate master patterns and working molds:

   

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