Showing posts with label Stoneware. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stoneware. Show all posts
Reversible Platters
I've always made pottery that was just as interesting on the under side as it was on the outside. So it was natural for me to at some point make plates that had no correct bottom and top where both sides could be used as the platter side. I had been creating large serving bowls playing with the idea of inside verses outside; I was using small slabs and creating ridges where the slabs met. The ridges were smoothed with my finger creating a highly textured ridge and finger lines. The result was something that would be expected on the outside of an interesting handmade bowl. Rather then keep the quite deep texturing to the outside, I turned the pattern inside out as it were. From there it was obvious the next step was simply eliminating the idea of right side up altogether. I kept using the small slabs to create the ridges, so not only would one side have a very deep texture, but the ridges and slabs could form the structure of the platters.
The other side
Platter 2
Modified to Fit
This piece has had one of the most interesting lives of my work. It was created with hand thrown cylinders. When it was created, it was an abstracted full human, roughly life-sized when green. In order to bisque the work, the head and some of the shoulders had to be chopped off. My working title then was "Person Kneeling Modified to fit Kiln". I quite liked the arbitrariness of it. It was then glazed, mostly with left over gunk from the sink trap in the glazing room. It was then fired in the wood kiln. During the firing, it became fused the the old gnarled kiln shelf it was sitting on. The shelf looks great with it. Since completion, it has been mailed across the country where it lost a knee cap, one foot and some of its shoulders torso area. It seems to be a person with a self-destruct button.
Embrace
The piece is about watching the world. It is about seeing evil, ugly things. It is also about entering into these bad things emotionally, but also protecting and loving yourself. The world is a sad place for those who look.
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