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Film: A pottery zoetrope animation? Go on then, it is Friday after all

Date
3 January 2014

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Long before the days of the Nintendo Wii and Hug Me Elmo there was the zoetrope; a very cool old-school gadget which creates the illusion of motion from a series of images which you spin around rapidly on an axis. It may have been sadly shunted to the toy-store sidelines but in December RAMP Ceramics collaborated with Jim Le Fevre to bring the humble zoetrope back into the limelight, stepping it up a notch by creating a ceramic pot which works in the same way.

Even better, they got Mike Paterson on board to film the whole arduous process, complete with the final effect, and then released it out into the world for us to coo over. The result is a splendid alternative to the digital animation we’ve become so numb to, celebrating all that is magical and wildly superior about hand-crafted imagery.

A person's hands use a measuring tool to mark a piece of paper. The paper features a printed pattern of stylized, symmetrical figures.
Above

Crafts Council: Film by Mike Paterson, ceramics and by RAMP Ceramics (Roops and Al Johnstone) and Jim Le Fevre

A person holds a piece of artwork, their fingers gripping the edge of the page. In the foreground, a paintbrush tip points towards the work.
Above

Crafts Council: Film by Mike Paterson, ceramics and by RAMP Ceramics (Roops and Al Johnstone) and Jim Le Fevre

A ceramic bowl sits on a potter's wheel, decorated with a repeating pattern of blue botanical motifs. A person wearing a dark apron stands beside the wheel in a bright studio.
Above

Crafts Council: Film by Mike Paterson, ceramics and by RAMP Ceramics (Roops and Al Johnstone) and Jim Le Fevre

A close-up of a white ceramic bowl decorated with blue patterns. Stylised blue birds fly above a row of geometric, tree-like shapes punctuated by small red dots.
Above

Crafts Council: Film by Mike Paterson, ceramics and by RAMP Ceramics (Roops and Al Johnstone) and Jim Le Fevre

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About the Author

Maisie Skidmore

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Maisie joined It’s Nice That fresh out of university in the summer of 2013 as an intern before joining full time as an Assistant Editor. Maisie left It’s Nice That in July 2015.

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