ABOUT
Ceramic Artist, Debra Steidel’s career began on the first day she sat at a potters' wheel in 1974. Her innovative ideas and high craftsmanship have earned her countless awards. Along with a strong gallery presence, her work is regularly on exhibit at the top Art Fairs in the country, to include the Context Art Fair during the annual Art Week Miami, Palm Beach Contemporary and The Palm Beach Show held each winter in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Debra's work displays an esthetic, although traditional in nature, is at home in a contemporary setting. Specializing in crystalline glazes, with an eye on current day aesthetics, she creates pieces with a technology of oxide colorant discoveries in the ceramic field. These new advancements have enabled her to produce unmuted colors with macro and micro-crystalline glazes as well as clay bodies that are more “plastic” in nature which aid in throwing large pieces on the wheel and taking porcelain to its limits.
Charles Chapman joined Steidel Porcelain in 2012. Charles’ career in art started in the late 1970’s where he attended Goldsmith School of Art, London. An artist “before his time”, Charles began his career building life sized sculpture out of recycled cardboard with a concentration on vehicles and machinery. His infamous “Cardboard Land Rover” received the honor of a parking ticket on a London Street! 40 years later Charles has fallen in love with clay as he has mastered his ceramic “Wall Slab”. Along with Debra’s crystalline glazes, his wall installations are a perfect canvas – ceramic abstract paintings, if you will, which are textural, rich in color and pattern.
Together, Debra and Charles work and live in St. Petersburg, Florida.
PROCESS
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Debra's work is a combination of hand-thrown ceramic vessels some of which hold or cradle a sculpture; each initially sculpted in clay. Some are selected to cast in lead crystal glass using the “lost wax” technique.
She created her first sculpture in clay with the intension of it being cast in glass over 10 years ago. It was kept safely in a box for several years. By chance, Debra found Hugh McKay, a glass caster, well known in the glass community as a “Master” of glass casting. He was the technical genius behind the late Binh Pho’s exquisite wood turnings, cast into glass.
What started as a collaboration together, "The Slab" has become Charles' passion. Each of these ceramic panels are created on a "slab roller" with soft clay. He measures and cuts each slab and then brushes on layers of porcelain slip. After the initial "bisque" firing, Charles applies Debra's crystalline glazes, which requires the same process as her pieces... a lengthy process that can take over 15 hours to fire and another 24 hours to cool.
EVENTS
No Shows Coming up until Fall 2023
GALLERIES
Debra's work is available through the following galleries. If you have particular piece in mind or you don't see what you are looking for, please contact her directly.
Objects and More
4462 Irvington Road, Virginia 22480
https://objectsartandmore.com/artist-works.php?artistId=343845&artist=DEBRA+STEIDEL
Regis Gallery - Las Vegas
The Grande Canal Shoppes at The Venetian
3377 S Las Vegas Blvd SUITE 2060, Las Vegas, NV 89109
contact : Isaac Dweck for more information on available work.
Steidel Contemporary - Steidel Fine Art
Located in the Palm Beach Design Center
500 S Dixie Hwy, West Palm Beach, FL 33405
https://www.steidelfineart.com/debra-steidel
The Gallery at Four India Street
Nantucket, MA 02554
https://thegallerynantucket.com/