Artist Statement

I have been wanting to make something special for my Mom for Mother’s Day.  She absolutely loves manatees and her favorite color is purple which is where the inspiration for this piece began.  As the work evolved, I changed the project from a sodium silicate slip vase to an engraved white clay vase that I felt would let me put together a vision to better show her how much I love her and how special she is to me.  The result is a cute but basic short tapered vase with a half inch top lip and soft purple matte finish.  I wanted the focus to be on the content of the engraving and not the form of the vase so I incorporated an alternate, darker color to the content to help it stand out.  The engraving has two manatees (the larger representing my mother and the smaller representing me) facing each other with snouts touching and three hearts floating up and away.  Below the manatees are the words, "I Love You".

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The emphasis of this piece is brought out through extensive use of line, shape, and color.  Line and color play supporting roles to shape in forming the natural scene being played out.  The depth and narrow width of the lines give edge to the image and text.  The darker color gives contrast to the background bringing focus and plays on the natural colors of the animals.   Shape brings together the representation of the scene showing a loving female manatee and her calf and let's me call out how much I love my Mom.

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The evolution of this work was largely directed by time and function.  Early on I identified that the sodium silicate slip style would take longer to dry than was available.  In switching to the engraved style of white clay, I started with a much more complex engraving that included alstroemeria, which is her favorite flower.  The design looked muddled and took away from the message so I removed the flowers and let the manatee's speak for themselves.

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This piece is not meant to represent or pull from other works or artists but instead is just a message from me to my Mom.

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The process was as follows:

  -Wedge a softball sized ball of white clay
  -Throw a cylinder on the wheel

  -Widen the base out with your fingers and a sponge

  -Use thumbs to create a lip at the top of the vessel
  -Trim away skirt clay with a wooden rib tool

  -Smooth the inside and outside of the vase with a sponge

  -Use a wire cutter to remove the vase from the wooden bat
  -Once leather hard create foot ring with a double edged carving tool
  -Use a needle tool to carve manatee design onto the vase
  -Bisque fire the vase
  -Use iron oxide to stain the carved image so it will stand out 
  -Use underglaze on the outside to give it a matte finish

  -Use glaze on the inside to give it a glossy finish

  -Glaze fire the vase

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