
Take Magaine, Roberto Lugo
Roberto Lugo is a Philadelphia-based ceramicist, social activist, and educator born in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia to working-class Puerto Rican parents. He began as a graffiti artist before discovering pottery at a community college in Florida, going on to earn a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Penn State. His hand-thrown vessels, including teapots, urns, and ginger jars, merge classical European and Asian ceramic traditions with hip-hop imagery and portraits of historically underrepresented Black and Latino figures. He is an Assistant Professor at Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University and has received the Rome Prize, a Pew Fellowship, and the Heinz Award.
Product description
High-fire clay body composed primarily of kaolin, firing between 1200 and 1400C. Porcelain produces a translucent, vitrified body with a distinctive white color and smooth surface. It is less forgiving than stoneware and requires precise moisture control during throwing and drying.
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Product description
Colored ceramic coatings applied to bisqueware or greenware before glaze firing. Underglazes contain ceramic pigments suspended in a clay-based medium and retain their color through the glaze firing, allowing detailed painting and decoration under a transparent glaze layer.
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Product description
Metallic overglaze containing suspended gold particles, fired at low temperatures (Cone 018 to 020, roughly 680-700C) to produce a thin gold surface on glazed ceramics. Applied as a final decoration after all other firings are complete.
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Edmund de Waal