My current university project requires me to make a pair of boxes that can hold either a secret, or something precious. I'm the least secretive person you will encounter, so I have opted to make my boxes to hold some rings that are precious within my family, but belong to both of my daughters, Caitlin and Niamh.
From this decision, I next had to decide upon a design. Running through a variety of ideas both from online research on ceramic boxes, and from my head, I made some drawings and started to whittle down my options. Whilst the online research was very inspiring, I landed down on the side of ideas I have in my head, namely, Victorian circus tents. These have long since fascinated me and I adore the stripes and the embellishments.
When it came to the build, I stuck to my usual clay body, Arctic White stoneware. The task demanded handbuilding, so it was an obvious choice. Using the 20cm limitation as a guide, I set about making templates so that I could achieve consistency with both pieces. They are a pair after all.
My personal aim for this task was to achieve neatness. My uni deadlines have been so tight up to this point, that I feel my builds have been affected. On reflection, this has left me feeling dissatisfied with the outcomes, which is never a good thing. I wanted to maintain my preious standards or even improve in this area. I like precision, tidyness, clean lines and I want that to be a part of my work.
Keeping an eye on the finished surface design, I incorporated texture in the form of grooves in both the lid and the base of each part of the pots. This will help with the glazing as I intend to incorporate the stripes and hopefully will be able to make each box appear dirty and worn.
At the point of greenware, I am satisfied with both the design and the build of the boxes. I have achieved exactly what I set out to do. Yes, I have made a few modifications along the way, for example, I decided against the swags at the top of the boxes. Having made the swags around the base of the lids, I realised it would be far too fiddly to achieve what I had drawn. Additionally, I thought it may actually detract from the overall finished design.
The boxes are now in the kiln and I will get to see them on Thursday when it is opened. I hope the kiln gods are kind...
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