In-Progress Photos

Final Product

Artist Statement

This was one of my favorite projects to work on, and one of the most labor-intensive. Inspired by a historical pot at least 1,000 years old, I used the bell krater as my inspiration for the clay body shape. It happened to match my idea for the carvings as well, which was something I'd thought of before even starting ceramics. The end result is a krater/pot that has very low-relief drawings around the outside, telling a narrative. 

"The Stable Song" by Gregory Alan Isakov is one of those songs that is a poem with music to tell it. The lyrics gave me such clear artistic visuals when I first heard it, and they continued to play out in my mind when I listed to it again and again. Something about the way Isakov strings words together resonates with me, and I love his unique combination of visuals in other songs like "Amsterdam".  I wanted to create a visual to show this story, and I loved the idea of a bowl, which could tell this circular tale that doesn't end, with all the references blending into one landscape. 

I began by creating a base and using wooden tools to sharpen the smaller disk and make sure the corners were clear in the steps of the pedestal. I then began adding hand-rolled coils and extruder-made coils to create layer upon layer of rings that I would smooth out with the aluminum oval tools. Later, I added the handles by wedging, rolling, and cutting the rectangles and slicing the edge at an angle so it they would attach the same way the Bell Krater's handles did, pointing downwards. 

After the krater dried to a leather-hard stage, I began to carve using the fine-tipped and circle-tipped metal tools. I tried to sketch my ideas lightly with the needle-nosed tool before carving more deeply, at times using the circle-tipped tools to dig deeper valleys in the clay. Each aspect of the krater has a line from the song that mirrors it. The particular quotes I chose for reference were:

"Were we the belly of the beast or the sword that fell?"

"I dragged you straight in the muddy ground"

"I ached for my heart like some tin man—it came oh beat and it boiled and it rang"

"I threw stones at the stars but the whole sky fell"

"The moon was just a sliver back then"

"Watch the world spinning waves like some machine"

"Turn these diamonds straight back into coal"

I still feel neutral about the glazing, which I struggled with for a while. In my mind, I associated these scenes with everything from a wheat-brown to lavender to an almost-black shade of blue. I knew I only wanted one or two colors and that I needed a glaze that would highlight all my detailed carving. I ended up with this shade of blue-green which stops abruptly to leave the hills and fields matte and bare. I did the same with the rim, and I love this decision to have some elements this beautiful off-white and contrast with texture instead of a glossy finish. I wish the glaze didn't look so mottled, but that's just part of the process! Overall I am incredibly proud of the execution of an idea that has lived in my head for months, and I'm so happy I got to create this piece.