North America
North America is the third largest of the world’s continents. European influences are strongest because of the history of colonialism, which brought European traditions to the continent. Geographically it has many regions and subregions and is usually recognized as the well-defined countries of the United States and Canada. This exhibit shows the work of two contemporary artists who create fanciful, yet playable, instruments made from mud/clay, based on traditional instrument models.
French/Hand Horn
Steve Smeed
Oregon, USA
Colored porcelain
1991 – signed & dated
Steve Smeed has made a variety of unusual and sometimes whimsical bugles. They are instruments of a combination of extruded, slab-built, wheel-thrown and slip-cast sections, assembled and fired as one piece. They all start out with a basic bugle design and then they evolve into a variety of instruments with tubes, chambers and mouthpieces.
Bugle Horn
Steve Smeed
Oregon, USA
Colored porcelain
1992 – signed & dated
Ceramic artist and potter Steve Smeed specializes in creating unique and functional porcelain horns, which are all hand-built using colored porcelain. Smeed is based in Oregon and is known nationally for his work.
Flugelhorn
Steve Smeed
Oregon, USA
Colored porcelain
Late 1900s – signed
This large flugelhorn is made from a variety of brightly colored clays. Since he was a teenager, Smeed has had a fascination with brass instruments which inspired him to join his junior high school band.
Sax-Bugle
Steve Smeed
Oregon, USA
Colored porcelain
Late 1900s – signed
This ceramic instrument is actually a bugle designed with a saxophone-like shape. It is made of high-fired porcelain clay, colored with stains and clear glaze and has a standard-sized bell.
Sax-Bugle
Steve Smeed
Oregon, USA
Colored porcelain
Late 1900s – signed
This ceramic saxophone is made with a variety of brightly colored clays with a brass-style mouthpiece, and a leather strap. Near the center of the instrument there is a small, corked pipe for moisture release, similar to a brass horn’s spit valve.
Bugle Horn (small)
Steve Smeed
Oregon, USA
Colored porcelain
1980s
This is an early version of a ceramic bugle made by Smeed. It is played like a bugle – by buzzing the lips.
Marimba with Mallets
Ward Hartenstein
Rochester, NY, USA
Terracotta
1980
This one octave clay marimba (idiophone), with mallets, is made of eight terracotta keys strung across a shaped terracotta stand which tapers to a cylindrical base. Two thick fiber ropes are strung through holes on the stand and can be tightened to pull the keys higher above the marimba. Designer Ward Hartenstein advises, “A balance between density and elasticity seems to be the key to idiophones.”