Artist Statement

As I expand my horizons in shape and form, I thought it would be interesting to throw some different types of pottery this trimester.  This specific project gave me the chance to work with matching pieces together with the jar and lid components as well as a bowl.  I really wanted to work on glazing techniques here and used lines to give that effect by applying thin lines of tape before glazing the pieces - Contrasting patterns of repeating vertical lines with the asymmetry of being slightly curved.  The contrast of the clay under the tape used to create lines made it feel like the right direction to use darker colors to add more contrast to the vessels.

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This piece plays with the elements of Color and Form brought out by the contrasting colors in the cups and lidded vessel. The Unity of the piece comes out in the dimpled texture from the base to the lip of the cups and the base to the tip of the lid on the knob n all pot.  There is almost a chaotic Rhythm present as a result of the vibrant colors bringing out the texture on the surface of this set.

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This project allowed me to learn how to manage dipping my forms in glaze.  My bowl ended up not being fully covered by one of the dip glazes I wanted to use so I had to wash it off and just use one color for the outside surface of the bowl instead of it being two toned. While it is frustrating to have to re-glaze a piece, it definitely gave me the opportunity to learn to test the depth of the glaze buckets before dipping so now I know before going on to larger and more time consuming pieces!

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The process was as follows:

  - Wedge the clay and roll into two soft-ball sized spheres
  - Center sphere on wheel and use thumbs to pull up to create mug form
  - Trim away skirt clay with wooden rib tool
  - Cut away from wheel with wire cutter
  - Place on wooden bat and wait to dry turning leather hard
  - Trim away excess clay with ribbon tool to finalize shape
  - Repeat for second mug
  - Center third sphere on the wheel and use thumbs to pull up to make a cylinder form
  - Cone in using hands to create a knob n all form
  - Trim away skirt clay with wooden rib tool
  - Cut away from wheel with wire cutter
  - Place on wooden bat and wait to dry turning leather hard
  - Trim away excess clay with ribbon tool to finalize shape
  - Place in the kiln and Bisque-fire
  - Apply thin tape strips around the outside of bisque fired mugs
  - Glaze with brushes for color
  - Peel off tape to reveal pattern
  - Apply glaze with brushes for color
  - Place in kiln and Glaze fire to finish hardening the glaze