Across its platforms, Amman Design Week features the various techniques, approaches and methods to making pottery and ceramics, showing how diverse the craft can be.

Aymen Azzam – art educator, full-time potter and founder of the Creative Arts Center – is displaying his crystalline pottery work at the Hangar Exhibition. Formed at 1,300 degrees centigrade, crystalline pottery combines science and art, and requires persistence to master the process of crystal growth. The process also involves the development of a chemical formula, specific temperature curve control, and an understanding of different types of clay.

On 9 October, the Creative Arts Center Amman will be hosting a free workshop entitled ‘Technical Innovation in Ceramics: Crystalline Glazes’ that will feature a slideshow of artists and their work, samples of pots and ceramic designs, tools and equipment.

‘The Gojo’ – designed by Canadian artist Paola Farran – was created with ceramic pieces, assembled like a mosaic, symbolizing the diverse Jordanian society coming together. It is a happiness bank designed to ‘save’ positive messages. The piece’s name means ‘Joy’ in Esperanto, the universal language. It is designed like a traditional ‘ujjeh’, but instead of coins, the public can insert their happy thoughts destined for specific people, or show their appreciation of elements of the world around them. For Amman Design Week, her goal is to explore the wealth of culture found in Amman, celebrate its diversity, and bring people together to focus on positive attitudes that drive the collective forward. ‘The Gojo’ is located at the Zain Cultural Plaza across the street from the Hangar Exhibition.

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Beit Al Bawadi will also be hosting a ceramics workshop introducing participants to the art of pottery-making, focusing on utilizing clay and grit to create ornaments or functional pieces. Participants will also learn about the stages of oven glazing and how to shape clay manually using the clay wheel, and will be able to make one piece for each technique they learn in the workshop.