In Jingdezhen, China proper, Canadian Native Artist Terry Jackson hired Yaosheng Ceramics to produce his signature line of cast porcelain vessels. With help from Artist and Painter-President Thomas Leung, Terry translated the level of standards he expected the final product to be, ensuring the quality the finished pieces.
Yaosheng Ceramics is a leading producer of high-quality porcelains for international retailers and museums throughout the globe. Founded in 2000 by renowned artists H. Leung and Thomas Leung, the company offers outstanding handcrafted traditional and contemporary ceramic designs. Their high-end porcelain is featured in museum stores, hotels, and public spaces, including the Smithsonian, the Getty Art Museum in New York, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Shanghai Art Museum, and many others. With Terry’s experience in direct casting from his own carving, he knew exactly what he wanted to convey to these accomplished artisans.
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Chinese artist and artisans are very proud of their ceramic arts which are rarely seen in North America. This manufacturer of high quality pottery and porcelain has earned the coveted ISO standards award for its consistency of product.
Yaosheng is based in Jingdezhen in northern China, the china capital of the world. Recognized for the quality of its clay deposits since the Chinese Imperial kiln was built there in the 13th century, Jingdezhen has been a ceramic arts center for the past 1,000 years. Today,Yaosheng employs master artisans trained in the region’s strong tradition of china craftsmanship to create its striking designs.
• Gump’s
• The Smithsonian
• The Boston Museum of Fine Arts
• The J. Paul Getty Museum
• The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
• The Wynn Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas
• Cache Creek Casino Resort
• And many others
This type of casting is essentially the same that Terry himself used. This is essentially all hand work as opposed to any machine work such as plate and cup manufacturing. The Porcelain is fired to “cone 10′ in a gas kiln and is a true “hard paste” porcelain with its wonderful qualities of whiteness, smoothness and incredible Translucency.
Hand casting from wood originals means first making plaster negative moulds Then porcelain slip is carefully made. [ "porcelain that is made liquid using certain electrolyte type substances that actually make the clay particles repel each other and remain in suspension"] This liquid called a slip, is poured by bucket very carefully and methodically to fill a mould. After sitting for a determined time ,the excess is drained with care and set aside for a certain period until it is dry and firm enough to handle. This all takes experience and timing.
When the pieces are dry enough ,the work of trimming the spares off the tops of the pieces begins and all seams need to be fettled or cleaned and smoothed. Attention to details such as debris in grooves ,lost detail or material on surface is then given priority. The actual surface is sanded gently and painstakingly to make a fine polish in the firing stage.
After all this meticulous attention, the piece is fired with such skill and systematic knowledge that it is truly amazing.
Many of Terry’s vessels or vases have uniquely different designs on either side
Terry presents this quality of work in the type of box that would presents it with respect and honor that will make it a real collectible in the ages to come.
First carved in fine-grained yellow cedar with patience and care, they are translated into reproductions in fine white and translucent hard paste porcelain. These artworks surpass the temporal nature of fashion and trend to become classical yet modern containers evoking a sense of connectivity and wholeness.
As with Terry’s earlier line “Tsolum River Studios” which he made himself for ten years, this porcelain is collected by diverse people with discerning tastes.
Tradition has to change sometimes. It has to be examined, tried and tested .What might of been appropriate earlier, has to take into account the present and future realities. With diligent care and study, slow considered changes are made to reflect this. To leave an art form, in an idea of it, leaves it only as nostalgia.”
- Terry Jackson 2007
Made in beautiful white and translucent porcelain, these porcelain art vessels display and look wonderful in just about any home decor. Elegant and classical ,they will stand the test of time and have become family heirlooms to pass down to the next generation.
True porcelain is very white, smooth, having a feel like no other clay. It is very hard and the most interesting quality is its good translucency. Bisque porcelain requires no glaze as it is totally vitrified, meaning the clay particles have fused like in glass. Having deposits of very fine pure kaolins, Jingdezhen is where porcelain is developed. The first porcelains were made just for the Emperors and later for trade. For many centuries the artisans of Jingdezhen created exquisite vessels that we seldom see in the west. Today the descendants of these masters still work this unique clay and produce outstanding works of art in their own right.
The technique used in Terry’s line is called direct casting. Terry first carves an original in yellow cedar wood [a fine grained coastal wood] then makes direct cast from it. From there, moulds are made in which to produce these works of art. This technique can produce faithful reproductions of the original if certain care and attention is maintained. This part is still time and labor consuming and the quality shows this.
For ten years Terry had produced a line of limited edition vessels himself running the successful “Tsolum River Studios” with his wife Irene, tackling the difficult issues true translucent porcelain has. After filling an order for IKEA Canada Ltd [Christmas gifts for employees] ,Terry spent the next two years carving this new line of wood originals and developing and testing with different porcelain companies . Finally now view for yourself as to the high quality and value of these exquisite vessels.
Sometimes the strongest and enduring forms of art happen simply because of the need to collaborate and realize the vision that a new artform commands.
This website presents to you the latest project that North American Native Metis Artist Terry Jackson is working on. With over thirty five years experience with the Northwest Coast Indian art idiom and more recently ,forays into European classical scroll type design, Terry’s desire to integrate his diverse cultural heritages, led to wood carvings translated into artworks of Fine Translucent Porcelain.
With much care and thought, and with the rich history and skills from Yaosheng Ceramics in Jingdezhen, Terry has developed a growing line of Fine Artworks or vessels in high quality Porcelain. Over four years has gone specifically into the development and design of this project and the results are shown here for the first time. Working with different fine porcelain making companies, he continued trying and testing until he found and finally produced a product he is satisfied with ,and is able to consistently produce to the very high standards he requires. We welcome you to view these vessels of unique and exquisite beauty.
The Metis are people descended from the original inter mixing of European fur traders and first nation women during the eighteenth century and nineteenth centuries. European fur traders, specifically English and French sought to acquire beaver pelts for the hat fashions of the day in Europe. Around the settlement of Fort Gary [present day Winnipeg], fur traders without adequate survival skills and with economic desires to secure trading rights with the first nations, moved into and lived with the native women. These women had the skills to teach their live- in men how to survive the harsher prairie and northern climate. The children of these relationship developed a Buffalo hunting culture in Manitoba under the leadership of such gifted visionaries as Louis David Riel who led two resistances against the overbearing government of the day. The original artworks of the metis is the beautiful floral beadwork. The first nations people called the Metis ,the flower beadwork people.
Many people thought that the Metis were just a footnote in Canadian history until this last and new generation has taken a proud stance and are learning their proper genealogy and heritage. Louis Riel prophesized that artists would reawaken the Metis spirit and culture one hundred years later. His original vision of the intermixing of the best of European and aboriginal (first nation) culture and spirituality is becoming and is starting to produce fruit.
Email: tjacksondesigns@xplornet.com
phone :250-446-2500
fax: 250-446-2500
Address: 4570 Highway #3 Rock Creek, British Columbia Canada
Mail: Box 265 Rock Creek, B.C. Canada V0H 1Y0
Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada in 1955,Terry Jackson started passionately learning at the age of 16 ,some of the amazing qualities of the last century’s masters of Northwest Coast native art. With help and assistance from the Hunt family and other carvers ,Terry slowly learned and became highly skilled at the nuances of the northern style of Northwest Coast art. Interests in his plains heritage and more recently European scroll type design, has broadened his artist sense. The last ten years has been a search for a new cultural expression for artists and Metis like himself. “To learn a language and to use it increases the range of expression available “.
Terry’s parents came from the Canadian prairies. His mother, a Metis, came from the village of Plum Coulee, Manitoba, where Metis and Europeans settled after the Riel resistances.
With blood-lines to the original fur traders as well to the the Cree and Sioux, Terry’s people were an interesting mixture of culture and race.
Terry Jackson has reached out to describe the Metis reality in the 21th century. Carving and designing for over thirty years, he has taken his love of Northwest Coast Indian art , his Plains Indian heritage and his European heritage and decided to see if these disparate worlds could be successfully integrated or blended.
He had access to the most amazing collections of Northwest Coast Indian Art works at the Royal Provincial Museum . He was drawn to these masterworks and desired to know somewhat the culture and thinking behind them. This profound influence challenged Terry and directed the next many years of his life.
He sensed he was different, yet could not put his finger on why. In collections ,both private and public, his unique use of the form to describe his inner reality, brought the desire to bring to the visual world the reality of Metis thinking .That is ,the various conscious and unconscious mixing of form and spirit into a living example of identity. Before the Metis were often known as derogatory “half-breeds”. “Half of something can never be a whole”-Terry Jackson. Now with confidence and the inner security of being a full person, Terry describes himself as a biracial person , one who is more than the sum of his parts.
His woodcarving has been collected by people such as;
The late John Candy comedian, actor
Glen Close actress
Ed Asner actor
Robert Davidson Haida master carver, designer extraordinaire
