Fingertip Art by American Ceramist Jon Almeda
2021-04-02

Fingertip Art by American Ceramist Jon Almeda

"Size Does Matter," writes Jon Almeda, a Washington-based artist, on his website. Pocket handmade ceramics are Jon Almeda's specialty. Before that, he made big pieces.

Jon Almeda was born in Washington, D.C., USA. From childhood, Almeda developed a warm affection and deep curiosity for Chinese culture."My grandfather, who is Chinese, told me Chinese culture and fairy tales from childhood, which filled my head with mystical imagination of China." Not only that, from the moment he started to learn ceramics at the age of 6, he developed an "incredible" interest in this ancient Chinese ceramic craft.

When choosing a major in college, he chose the "unpopular" ceramic major without hesitation. After graduating from college, he followed the principle of "bigger is better" and began to experiment with making giant pottery. After years of accumulation, he made great achievements in the industry, but he himself was more and more confused: Is bigger pottery better? How to keep the perfect balance between the big and the fine?

 

These questions kept repeating themselves in his mind until he read a book called "Creating Ceramic Miniatures," in which four words made him realize: Do small things big. Jon is so inspired that he gives up the booming giant pottery business and goes headlong into the world of pocket ceramics.

 

He went to Hawaii alone and started from scratch with pocket ceramics. Quiet night, he focused on groping. "When you calm down, everything around you seems to be willing to help you, the sea, trees, even the texture of plants, I become a constant inspiration." Jon is 34 years old, but he's only been working on pocket ceramics for seven years. He's already a leader in the industry, and even people who started decades before him are coming to see him for advice." I've drifted between these two extremes from making giant pottery to making tiny pottery, but in the end I've learned two things: to spend time doing what you love to do is to feel genuinely happy; The smaller the thing, the more you need to be extremely focused, obsessive." Just as an old Chinese saying goes: Do not do a good thing when it is small. I think there is a common truth in this. No matter how small a thing is, it has infinite value and possibility.