porcelain, at last

I always wanted to work with porcelain.. but I could never dare.. because it is always said that this clay is very difficult to work with, very capricious.. especially when it comes to throwing.. but its pure colour, fine and translucent nature make this material impossible to resist. I admire porcelain pieces which look very fragile, but in fact very strong.
..and last weekend my father brought a piece of porcelain clay from his friend's workshop for me to try..
I have thrown this one ... Here is #27, my little plain porcelain bottle.
it has a buttery texture, a pleasure to touch and definitely a pleasure to throw.. has a deep, warm colour.. candy for the eye.. even only for these reasons, surely it worths to give it a try..
I still have almost 4 kilos left and can keep trying a bit more.. so happy!

1 out of 4 is completed

I have reached the 26th. Here are the latest bottles...on which I will try some surface decoration after the bisque firing.

But #16 is cracked... so from now on, there will be 99 bottles in 100 bottles project!

sketchbook: Castel Sant'Angelo

"...Through my work which is inspired by architecture, I want to grab viewer’s attention with familiarity; to make them contemplate and be surprised by new perspectives on each move and change of light with details. My sculptural forms are also influenced by past even though they refer to future.
...I want them to be intellectually stimulating, to reflect complexity not the chaos, not to be “read” easily. My aim is to create forms which are strong and dynamic but quiet and tranquil; detailed and complex but has its own rhythm and order. .."
This is a part of my artist statement... when I see Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, I thought "this is exactly what I mean". With its pure form, dramatic details and textures created in years, it is most dignified, strong and intriguing building I have ever seen..

I hope one day, I can achieve to make one piece, either as ceramist or an architect, close in complexity, dignity and excellence to this amazing building..

re-focus

2 slab built and 1 thrown bottles with thrown spouts: this is all I could do last weekend.. I applied red iron oxide on one of them which looks a bit messy at the moment.
I started this project mainly because I want to streghten my skills on surface design.. I thought making dozens of bottles with different surfaces would help.. but I realized that it is again turning into something about form... I found myself searching for different forms and challenging myself on construction methods!

I need to refocus, get back to do some more research and start sketching...

keep on working

It is not easy being a weekend ceramist.. there is always a lot to do in two days.. Last weekend, I had a long list: Do some shopping, tidy up the house, meet with friends, do some more shopping for father's day, visit family and keep working on bottles project!
Besides, the weather was incredibly hot and my studio was like "hamam"..
Nevertheless, even under these hard conditions, I worked till 10:30 pm on sunday night and finished these 6 bottles!!
Their spouts are thrown and bodies are slab built.. slabs have been textured first, then the bottles are constructed with these heavily textured slabs when they were pretty wet...

100 bottles project

this time, I have thrown different spouts and bodies without measuring or even thinking about how they will look like when finished...
then, like a puzzle, I brought them together and made these ones..
they are smaller than the first two bottles.. around 15-20 cm height.. and right after I finished them, I realized that they look gorgeous when they are all together.. so, wouldn't be great if they were, for instance, 100 in total? ..each one is different than the other in some way?
I am still not certain if I could make it (since I am only potter/ceramic artist on weekends and it could take ages) or if it is a good idea (could be not as interesting as it sounds), but I will give it a try..
From now on, this is "100 bottles project".. if I could cope with..

work in progress - thrown & altered #2

I started to work on another thrown & altered project this weekend..
This time, I threw 3 different part seperately and assembled when they are in leather hard stage.. I should admit that I find all these experiments quite entertaining...there is no tension or worry, since I am not after a finished piece.. I accept whatever the outcome..


I applied yellow and black slips which is coloured with stains..
Here is my second test piece...

is it getting better or worse?