Muddy Tales

4.9.2017 muddytales

A case of almonds

”One has to immerse oneself in one’s surroundings and intensely study nature or one’s subject to understand how to recreate it.” —Paul Cezanne

Nature has always been one of the biggest muses for artists and designers. So I guess that was the reason why one of our first assignments was to study plants – forms made by nature. We searched and picked up samples of plants, vegetables, fruits etc. and did some sketches of them – drawing the whole sample and close-ups of it. I, myself, tried to look for interesting shapes, structures and surfaces that moved me.

I chose an almond. I handle almonds daily, but have never really looked at one closely enough. Its shape swells and thins whereas its surface is covered by wavy lines from end to end. Depending on the light, shadows can bring up forms that I can’t see with a dull light. How interesting one little almond can be!

After I had done my sketches the next step was to make a model – lifelike version of my almond out of earthenware clay. Trying to mimic nature’s handiwork isn’t easy – my model ended up looking more like a stone of a fruit than an almond. Although I was allowed to make it in larger scale… Oh well!

When the little model was done, it was time to make an even bigger version out of it. We could go as big as we wanted (as big as the kiln could take), but I decided to make it the size of my own hand. It was fascinating to blow up the form of something so tiny – to see how the shapes and lines work bigger.

Before I worked on my clay almond too much, I needed to hollow it out to prevent it from bursting into pieces in the kiln. When both sides where hollow I carefully attached them back together.

How deep should I make the lines? Are there even more of them in this scale? Should I treat the surface somehow? How can I imitate a thin layer of husk? Does it look enough almond-like? These questions echoed in my head before I sank into a meditative kind of state. I turned down the static of my mind and let the clay steer me. I cannot always control what happens and it’s really good for me.

The final part of this assigment was to transform the model into something useful, meaning, into a cup, a jar or a plate for example. We could make it look just like a natural form or just take something out of it. Like a shape, a surface structure or just a feeling. I borrowed a little nib from my almond. While I was working my clay that tiny part of the nut always felt nice between my fingers. That was the spark for my idea – a knob top of a lid.

It’s interesting how the ideas come and build up into something. Nature has always been a big source of inspiration for me. Just walking in the woods lifts me up and lets the ideas flow.

//Jenni//

P.S. Almonds are queuing for some kiln time. I’ll post some pictures of them later when they’re done.

Avainsanat: #casestudy, #ceramic studies, #ceramics, #earthenware, #hand-building

Kulttuuri Suosittelen Opiskelu

29.8.2017 muddytales

Never-ending cycle

One thing I love about clay is its recyclability.

I can reuse my clay as many times as I want before it’s fired. Even if it has dried out I can transform it into plastic again. It’s really simple to do, the only things you need are some time, effort and muscle power. Here’s how I and my classmate Anna did it.

DAY 1

First we needed to break the dry clay lumps into smaller pieces. We made it happen with some good old hammers and raw girl power! And the reason for pulverizing the clay lumps was that the water could dissolve the clay back to mud sooner that way – start the cycle over once again.

After we had enough crushed bits we filled an old dough machine’s basin halfway with it. Filling it up with any more clay would cause the mixture to pour over in the mixing phase. Lastly we hosed water in the basin to cover the clay bits under water. We left the mixture to soften up overnight.

DAY 2

Magically the dry clay bits had turned into sticky mud overnight. So it was time to turn the merry old dough machine on. It took about 3 hours for it to knead the mud into soft clay. Occasionally one of us needed to checkon the kneading process and clean the sides of the basin – to make sure that the mud dough was evenly mixed.

After the clay was thoroughly mixed we moved it onto plaster slabs. This allowed the excessive water to soak into the plaster by making our clay responsive and less sticky – more easier to coax into forms.

We left the slabs to do their job overnight and covered them with plastic sheets to prevent the clay from drying out too much.

day 3

Finally it was time to split, weight, wedge and bag our clay. It’s important to wedge the clay well – it helps to even out the texture and getting rid of air pockets.

This part was the one which left us sweaty after wedging about 60 kg of stoneware clay. We tightly bagged our clay into 10 kg bags for easier storage. And it was important to get all the air out of the bags to preempt the clay’s premature solidification.