Artist Inspired Piece

Link to Artist Research Assignment here.

For this assignment, we were asked to make any ceramic piece we wanted that took inspiration from a piece made by a professional ceramicist. We also had to do a research assignment about the ceramicist we researched. I chose to research Shoji Hamada, who was a well-known ceramicist in twentieth century Japan. The first picture shown below is a teapot made by Hamada in the 1950's, and is the piece I decided to recreate/take inspiration from. I liked this piece a lot because the geometric aspect was very eye-catching, but it wasn't too harsh. I also really liked the glaze that Shoji chose, as I think it complemented the form of the teapot nicely. Lastly, I thought that the handle on the pot was unique and would be fun to recreate. As for my building process, I started with a medium-thickness slab for the bottom of the teapot. From there, I decided to use the coil technique and start by making coils moving outward. After making coils for about three to four inches, I started making coils going directly upwards. Along the way every few inches, I would using a scratchy metal tool to blend together all of the coils, and I used a small wooden tool to smooth the inside of the pot. Before I started to move inward before the top, I made the teapot spout using the pulling technique. I pulled a very short and thick cylinder and laid it on a wearboard to dry out. I used a hairdryer to speed up this process. Once it was dry enough, I cut the cylinder so that it was the general shape of the spout on Hamada's teapot. Then, I cut the spout directly down the center, going the long way, and used a small metal tool that was curved to scoop out the center of each half. Then, I scored the sides of the spout and slipped them back together, smoothing out the outside and the inside. From that process, I was able to create a hollow spout without changing the original shape that I desired. From there, I continued to make coil over the spout and moved inward. I move almost all the way in until there was a small space in the center of the pot, then I cut at an angle in a small circle to make the pot lid. I added a small handle on the top of the lid also. Lastly, I pulled a long piece of clay for the handle and attached it to the top of the pot. After the bisk fire, I used the PC 20 glaze, which was a medium blue color, on the entire tea pot. I am very pleased with how my piece came out and I am very proud of it. If i were to go back and change anything about my piece, I would make the handle a little bit shorter and lower to the pot so it wouldn't be as dramatic. Also I would make the fit of the cap a little bit more precise and possibly make it lifted the the one I was inspired by. Overall, I think my artist inspired piece was a success.