Bone Dry Vessel
Photo of Draft Drawing
Glazed Slab Vessel
Artist Statement
Building this Slab Vessel started with my decision of organic or a geometric shape. I decided to focus on a more organic shape for this project. Why did I choose to make an organic vessel? Something about organic makes me think natural and natural makes me think of nature. Nature plays a huge part in my emotions and my reasons for doing something. Having two flowers in my name/ a part of my identity, provides a deep connection within me between to the living things outside. I like how organic vessels have a feeling of relaxation and a sense of going with the flow that everything is beautiful the way it is. This was my inspiration for choosing to create an organic vessel.
My template started as a template for a teacup. While I was making and slipping the pieces together for this teacup, I did not like how the vessel was turning out, so I started over. I had previously looked online for ideas and inspiration in which direction I should head with this project. A common likeness in my favorite inspirations were that they all were a sort of bowl or cup form, never to big but not to small. I took this idea and used some of the extra scraps I had from my previous attempt at a teacup, and started building. I wanted my cup to look somewhat like a flower or have the feeling of it being a petal off a flower.
I used my knowledge of the staging of clay by taking in consideration that the clay would be easiest to shape into a circular form when the clay was wet. Knowing this I tried to take my wet clay on the first day and from it as much as I could so I could move on and have the most movement with the clay for that stage in my construction. Knowing slip is like the glue of clay I used it frequently to connect my pieces together and fixing up cracks/ holes that would appear in my vessel. Overall building this vessel was not impossible, but it did take me patience and a gentle sort of touch to work with my clay and not destroy what I had so far.
My template started as a template for a teacup. While I was making and slipping the pieces together for this teacup, I did not like how the vessel was turning out, so I started over. I had previously looked online for ideas and inspiration in which direction I should head with this project. A common likeness in my favorite inspirations were that they all were a sort of bowl or cup form, never to big but not to small. I took this idea and used some of the extra scraps I had from my previous attempt at a teacup, and started building. I wanted my cup to look somewhat like a flower or have the feeling of it being a petal off a flower.
I used my knowledge of the staging of clay by taking in consideration that the clay would be easiest to shape into a circular form when the clay was wet. Knowing this I tried to take my wet clay on the first day and from it as much as I could so I could move on and have the most movement with the clay for that stage in my construction. Knowing slip is like the glue of clay I used it frequently to connect my pieces together and fixing up cracks/ holes that would appear in my vessel. Overall building this vessel was not impossible, but it did take me patience and a gentle sort of touch to work with my clay and not destroy what I had so far.