Artist Statement:
I think this was the first time I took this long to decide what I wanted to do for a ceramics project. I changed my project twice before I was content with what I was doing--by then, people thought my slab pot was my world culture pot! There’ve been several guesses as to what my...tiki vase-ish pot was (even I’m not sure what it is). For example, I’ve gotten guesses as wide as Frankenstein and the Easter Island statues. I felt the requirements of our slab pot were heavier. I felt that because we could literally build almost anything we could this time, the requirements felt more limiting. This was the main reason why I struggled to settle on a design--I had so many choices that somehow needed to fit the requirements.
I was having trouble finding inspiration, so after I abandoned my initial design of a tree I came up with the idea of settling on something Hawaiian (or something that was supposed to be Hawaiian). My design was based on a tiki vase--and though it’s not nearly as big as a real vase should be, I think the thing itself turned out fine. I lived in Hawaii when I was little and I’ve visited every summer since. To this day I love the place, and so it became easy to create something surrounding something I loved.
Personally, I felt that this is the best my glaze has ever turned out! I love the dull red that almost looks burnt (though, I suppose, it was fired at about a bajillion degrees). The texture I added can clearly be seen. The subtracted texture doesn’t show as much as I thought it would, but I’m pretty content with it. The glaze also seems to have stuck to parts of the kiln in little places, which throws off the lid a tiny bit but again, it’s not a big problem and doesn’t take away from the whole picture.
I think this was the first time I took this long to decide what I wanted to do for a ceramics project. I changed my project twice before I was content with what I was doing--by then, people thought my slab pot was my world culture pot! There’ve been several guesses as to what my...tiki vase-ish pot was (even I’m not sure what it is). For example, I’ve gotten guesses as wide as Frankenstein and the Easter Island statues. I felt the requirements of our slab pot were heavier. I felt that because we could literally build almost anything we could this time, the requirements felt more limiting. This was the main reason why I struggled to settle on a design--I had so many choices that somehow needed to fit the requirements.
I was having trouble finding inspiration, so after I abandoned my initial design of a tree I came up with the idea of settling on something Hawaiian (or something that was supposed to be Hawaiian). My design was based on a tiki vase--and though it’s not nearly as big as a real vase should be, I think the thing itself turned out fine. I lived in Hawaii when I was little and I’ve visited every summer since. To this day I love the place, and so it became easy to create something surrounding something I loved.
Personally, I felt that this is the best my glaze has ever turned out! I love the dull red that almost looks burnt (though, I suppose, it was fired at about a bajillion degrees). The texture I added can clearly be seen. The subtracted texture doesn’t show as much as I thought it would, but I’m pretty content with it. The glaze also seems to have stuck to parts of the kiln in little places, which throws off the lid a tiny bit but again, it’s not a big problem and doesn’t take away from the whole picture.