2019 Spring Art Show Collection Gallery
Artist Statement
Elements of Ceramics Spring 2019 Class of 2022 When I started this semester, I had never taken ceramics before. I had done some handbuilding with clay in other art classes, but I had never actually devoted an entire semester to working solely on ceramics. We started with handbuilding, but I am a perfectionist, and never really liked how I couldn’t get bowls to look perfectly round or smooth with handbuilding. Then, we moved to the wheel and worked on cylinders, bowls, and plates. I found that I liked cylinders, but they were challenging, and I really enjoyed making bowls and plates. I knew I wanted to make bowls and plates for my show, but I didn’t really know what was going to tie the pieces together. Then, I was helping at an event at my church and I saw a little bowl with a spiral effect on the inside. It wasn’t with glaze, someone had actually taken their finger and handmade a spiral on the inside of the bowl. I took a picture of it. I went back into ceramics class on Monday and played around with how I could create that same spiral form on my pieces (I started with a plate because it would be the easiest to work with). I learned that if the wheel spins really slow, then you can press into the center of the piece and draw a quick line out from the center to the right to get a spiral. The faster the speed, the looser the spiral. My spirals are fairly tight, because I didn’t move my finger much ahead of the speed of the wheel, as I wanted to create a calmer look. The forms themselves are straightforward: I wanted the plates to be functional, so they are not unlike normal dinner plates that would be seen in a store. I wanted the bowls to look a little more decorative, so I made the form taller than usual with a smaller foot, but not so over the top that they still couldn’t be used (the foot is still mostly in proportion with the size of the bowl). The spiral was used to create a rhythm and movement to build on for the underglaze, which was ombre. The colors I chose for the underglaze were a blue-green and white, but the blue-green ended up darkening considerably when I put it in the kiln after clear glazing it, so it’s more green than blue now. The glaze was used to move the eye through the piece, because it has enough variation coupled with the spiral to make a viewer naturally curious. It was also used to create harmony throughout the pieces, and unite them together. I greatly enjoyed making my show this semester, and I look forward to what I will learn in ceramics in the future to better my craft. |