Pre-Instruction Vessel Artist's Statement My first attempt at working with clay was building this Pre-Instruction Vessel. It was designed to be a set with a miniature pitcher and small cup. The pitcher has a dense bottom and a rounded handle with a very small spout. The cup is a rounded structure, almost more in the form of a bowl, with no handle.
The artwork is organized to focus on form. Having no previous ceramics experience, I was only focusing on making sure the work was smooth and had the potential to serve its desired purpose as a pitcher and a cup. No artist was used as inspiration, as this project was used as a control to gauge improvement over the rest of this class, so I was only supposed to use any previous knowledge or intuition I had to design the structure. The intention behind this work was to design a miniature version of a common functional object. When we were given the task of making something from clay without any instruction, I chose to make the ceramic work smaller because I knew I could pay more attention to detail and try to make it as neat and sturdy as possible. I chose to make a pitcher because I thought it would be something interesting to create and fun to make small. The cup was added after, and there were originally two, however, one broker during the building process. I made the cups as an addition to make a little set. I am happy with how this ceramic work came out considering that I had had not previous instruction. Looking back on it with the knowledge I have now, I could have made it much more structurally sound and beautiful. I would still keep the piece for myself as a cute decorative piece, however I would make it much smoother and more sturdy if I were to remake it. |