Strip It Down

To get from a lump of clay to a finished work is a long and multi-stepped journey. Each material used and every step in the process can be tweaked. This can lead me to endless experimentation–and possible confusion.

It’s been shown that more choices don’t make us happier and more satisfied with our decisions. Putting limits on what we explore in our art at any one time makes sense. So, what are your parameters? Do you strip it down, limiting your options and looking deeper into your choices? Or do you tackle all the areas that are interesting and possible?

Let’s look at our main options for choice and limitations.

Building materials: Clay–one little word but soooo many choices, all yielding different results. I’ve basically limited myself to high fire clays because I like how they feel, their working properties, and my glazes perform best in the high fire range. However, I’ve started looking at wild clay in my area and so far, those have been lower firing. I love using materials of place when I’m building sculpture, so I choose to keep these wild clays on my list.

I also add things to my clay. This piece had the seed fuzz from a Sycamore tree mixed into the clay before building. It burned out during the bisque firing, leaving these marks which subsequently filled with glaze.

Surface treatments: The most classic and well known surface application is glaze. What kinds there are and how we can use them to get different results is at least another two newsletters. So, let’s just say yes to glazes, especially on functional ware. There are also a myriad of surface treatments that don’t fall into the glaze world. They include, but are not limited to: totally naked clay, stains, minerals, underglazes, the coloration that develops in pit and raku firings, and the glaze that develops during atmospheric firings like soda, salt and wood.

Some of those I can eliminate right away because I don’t have the kilns for them-the atmospheric and raku firings. The only other limit I seem to have is a lack of interest in painting decoration on my work. But that doesn’t eliminate much. It still leaves a huge world of possibilities that grows exponentially with every choice added. Even with all these well documented, existing choices, I still love to experiment with surface treatments. Instead of wood firing, I’ve been painting wood ash onto my work to act as a glaze. Some of the results of that have been seen in earlier posts. Now I’ve started experimenting with single source ash-like walnut leaves, oak galls, or grass, and I learn something new with every firing

Technique: There are techniques for building–like casting, throwing, and hand building, and techniques for finishing–like adding or subtracting texture, sgraffito, and burnishing. Working with a few techniques keeps us a focused and gives us parameters to explore within. Different techniques offer different limits and therefore different experiments and results.

Process: What sequence of steps do we take to make our art? Do we love a particular series of steps? Do we love repetition? Variation? Exploring where we can push things?

What about form? Adam Buick is a Welsh ceramic artist that I follow on Instagram. He chooses to make only one form-the moon jar-and then experiment with materials within that form. I’ve recently limited the form of the African Vessel Series I’ve been working on. I feel like this has given me the chance to explore deeper into the other aspects of creating a successful piece.

How about subject matter? Does what we’re interested in thinking and talking about give us any limits? At the very least, it informs us as to what techniques and processes are best used to convey that idea. I work on different series grouped by subject matter, both in my functional and sculptural pieces. However, the discoveries that happen while working on one piece or series are not limited to that work. They definitely inform the work on other pieces.

It seems that I have set myself up for a long, long journey to reach excellence. While I love the idea of stripping down my options, limiting my techniques, surface treatment, and maybe even my ideas, I have a curiosity without many limitations. So, my progress is a slow advancement over a broad front. I choose to make both functional and sculptural work. I use both hand building and throwing techniques. I love texture, so I add and subtract to and from my surfaces. Because I make both functional and sculptural work, I use all kinds of building materials and surface treatments. Mostly glaze and traditional clay for the functional work, and anything that interests me for the sculptural pieces. And, I work on several ideas at once, usually in a serial fashion. But, every discovery and realization I have is used to hopefully make my new pieces better!