As a junior here at KCAI, we are encouraged to try new things, things that are out of our comfort zone, things that we would have never tried before. This semester has been full of great challenges, some of which really pushed me to question my work, my weaknesses, my skill, and most of all my will. One of the things that I have learned here is that in order to grow you have to be willing to listen, learn and work hard. Throughout the year we are given various research assignments and projects and this one has been one of my favorites!
This particular project involved me going over to the Nelson Atkins Museum, and choosing a piece or a form that inspired me and replicate it. These pieces were inspired by late 1800’s silver and pewter coffee and tea sets. While the working characteristics of metal and ceramics are very different from one another, I was told that working in clay to produce work made in metal was not ideal. But I was eager to test the limits of porcelain, and excited just thinking about what the application of silver and gold luster could do! How could I not try it? So, I have used these silver and pewter coffee and tea sets as inspiration to produce my own sets in clay.
Before I started working on them, I had to do a bit more research. I went to our library and checked out tons of books, searched online, and I even talked to a few ceramic history buffs! I learned that during the industrial revolution “Lusterd Ceramic Wares” were produced as an alternative to the high priced silver and pewter sets that were unaffordable to many. I was so inspired by this information that I had to do this project.
The pieces shown on the “works in progress page” are of bisque ware (after the first firings before the glaze is applied usually are white or pink in color). Some pieces will be lusterd silver or gold, others china painted, a few just glazed with minimal color. All my work is handmade on the potter’s wheel, altered and manipulated, slip trailed and carved and then fired. I have now made over twenty pouring vessels in this series, about ten sugar jars, a dozen cups and a few trays. For me physically working through an idea is very important, things change along the way, accidents happen, and not always do things work out as you had planed. Clay as a medium really allows me the freedom of exploration. I’m still working on these “sets” and the relationships from one form to another; ceramics for me is always an endless process– one that I enjoy very much!
