My first official project for university which was exciting! No money or even my life was involved in this project, just two stands that could deliver food in a funky kind of way. I shall write about one of them here.
At the end of term all of the Ceramics MA students got together for a Christmas pot luck lunch. Everyone will brought something along, and, as we are ceramics students, it was all presented on handmade ceramics. I liked this idea. It was fun!
I started with the brief which outlined that my stand had to be in two parts able to slot together to make one piece. Half must be based on something manmade and half must be based on a natural form. I worked my way through animals, flowers, trees, corsets, hats and trumpets. In the end I settled on making a tangled vine in the shape of a bird's nest with an asymmetrical top hat nestled inside. The top of the hat could act as a stand to display food.
I decided to extrude black stoneware clay for the vines and made up several small maquettes to work out the engineering process. I was pleased that I did this as I didn't like the results the maquettes brought forth. The forms were too regular and not winding, curling, and natural enough. I went back to basics and used a plaster former, working wider gaps into the extruded clay forms and continually overlaying more coils. I was much happier with the results, both as a process and as an outcome. I added thorns randomly throughout the finished 'bowl' and also leaves. It took me nine hours to build. When I came back to it the following day, It was so fragile that just moving it on the board made it start to fall apart. I had trialled a different joining process and it had failed. It wasn't useable and I had learned the hard way. I had to start again.
This time, I used my usual slip and score method and repeated the whole process. Things are always quicker second time around and this time the piece was completed in around 4-5 hours. It felt much sturdier right from the start. I also added a curl inside so that the hat could sit on it leaving the wonky top flat. I had more confidence in this build whilst recognising that it was still quite vulnerable in design.
The hat build was relatively straightforward and was slab built using white stoneware. Both went for firing and came out perfect. Phew!
The glazing of the hat was achieved with three coats of Botz Scotch Heather brush on glaze. It was interesting to apply and fascinating upon firing. It gave the piece a texture yet retained it's smoothness so it was fit for purpose. I love the overall finish.
The vines were finished with an off-white engobe that brought out the textures on the joins, the leaves and around the thorns. I then fired the piece to around 1260 which darkens the clay to almost black. It worked really well and came out as envisaged.
Both pieces fitted together perfectly and were very useful in holding the mini quiches I displayed on them!
This project provided much for me to learn from that I could take forward with my own practice and use again. My main learning points were to stick to tried and trusted skills, and to take a few design risks. Both will inform my future practice.
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