Man-made and natural sources of creative inspiration:
The task:
Research, gather and present visual reference material
Develop a series of ideas that explore the relationship between the vessel and the stand
Produce two finished pieces, both involving a vessel and a stand
2. A man-made stand and a natural world vessel:
As a child, I was impressed by the huge cooling towers of Padiham Power Station, huge, grey towers which dominated the surrounding landscape and skyline. I thought a cooling tower would be an ideal stand structure which would hopefully reflect the different shades of grey on the outside of the tower. Clouds of water vapour billowed from the towers, a natural by-product. My challenge was how to make a vessel resembling a cloud.
The tower was thrown using stoneware clay and decorated using strips of newspaper and black and white slip to reflect the shades of grey. I left the vessel unglazed and biscuit fired only, in order to preserve the matt finish.
I studied cloud formations and artists' representations of cloud forms. I experimented with rolled porcelain clay over hump moulds. I hand-shaped and textured the cloud forms by pressing spherical objects of different sizes into the clay. I settled on 2 forms as porcelain can be prone to cracking. After biscuit firing, I used a transparent glaze on one of the cloud forms and a sparing amount of cobalt oxide on the other on which I applied the same transparent glaze. This came out of the kiln a very strong shade of blue - not quite the natural cloud colour I had hoped for (note to self - be more careful with cobalt oxide in future).
Thankfully, the white cloud form proved to be a success and was the perfect serving vessel for fluffy, white popcorn at the Christmas buffet.
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