Getting My Hands Dirty
A selection of ’snappy‘ ceramics
A while back I did a short course in ceramics at the College of Adult Education in Melbourne. I had not stuck my fingers into any clay since I was in junior high school, but I had very strong memories of the pleasures of working with clay. I loved the squishy feel of it; its sculptural possibilities.
When I signed up for the course, I already had very firm ideas on what I wanted to make. I had a vision of ceramic Krispy Kreme donuts!
A punctured tealight cover inspired by a bank of clouds – it looks pretty when the candlelight shines through.
In the first class we learned how to make pinch pots, and the coil method of construction. I was the only student who decided to keep the coils visible on the exterior, rather than smoothing them down. I designed a little pot, inspired by the shape of a beehive, and chose to glaze it white, leaving the terracotta to show through here and there. I was so pleased with the result: the bulbous little pot is so tactile; silky yet bumpy.
Other experimental surface decorations include an embossed lace texture applied to various dishes, and punctures using an awl in my tealight cover. That scalloped shape was inspired by clouds.
Silky yet bumpy: my little coiled beehive pot
I also made a number of embossed lace pendants in bisque clay as well as porcelain, although the latter are not glazed so I do not like them so much. The bisque pendants were glazed in blue and green, although I wish I had made some white.
A selection of fragile bisque pendants awaiting stringing
As for the Krispy Kreme mission, it was indeed a success. Lacking time in class, I took some clay home and made two halves using the pinch pot method, realising fairly quickly that my first attempt was far too tall. Never mind: it could admirably transform into a stack of two donuts! The second was much more well-proportioned.
I decorated them, carefully coaxing the glaze to drip like real icing, trying to imitate the translucence of the glaze on an ‘original’ Krispy Kreme donut. I applied it heavy-handedly in patches, in the hopes that it would crackle in the kiln – which it did. Usually that is an error, and one risks flaking, but in this case it was a happy ending. They look plump enough to sink my teeth in – but I usually manage to resist the urge!
A stack of two original Krispy Kremes await a cup of coffee
The Ceramic Architect
Last week I visited Craft Victoria to view ceramicist Susan Robey’s exhibition Inhabit. Sculpture is one of my favourite artistic disciplines, and ceramics has always been appealing to me as well; both are attractive on a tactile level. At exhibitions I always long to caress their silky surfaces.
She creates, like Dr Frankenstein, tiny creatures that roar with life; that eyeless, blunder about.
In these works Susan Robey, a Melbourne based ceramic artist and architect, combines the structural elements of architecture – walls, columns, windows – with pliable, paper thin slabs of clay. She applies texture: ribs and punctures; repeated patterns like knit and corrugation. She creates, like Dr Frankenstein, tiny creatures that roar with life; that eyeless, blunder about. She says of her work:
”Of the many definitions of ‘animate’, I am particularly interested in ‘to fill with life’ and ‘to make as to create the illusion of motion’. Words such as scuttle, sneak, and perch come to mind, borrowed from the animal and insect world. In addition to support, I believe it is the legs which have enabled the objects to develop individual personalities. In the making order, they are attached last and therefore suddenly the objects appear to be lifted to life.”
Some of those wonky creatures indeed look like cheese graters come to life. I want to pick them up and caress them, take one home with me. These are not critters to fondle however, their folds and sharp edges class them as dangerous creatures of some future, primeval world – waiting to bite your ankle when you get out of bed in the morning.
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Inhabit is showing until 5 March in Gallery 1, at Craft Victoria
31 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
View the gallery online
Photo by Terence Bogue; via Craft Victoria