Makers Stamp

Artist Statement:

For this assignment, we were told to create a makers stamp, something that was original and unique to us that we could use as a signature for our pieces. Going into this project I had no idea what I wanted to do. I tried to brainstorm things that represent me in some way. At first, I just drew my initials in bubble letters because initials are always just an easy straightforward way to identify your work. Then I thought of drawing a Lily because my name is Lilia and my parents wanted to name me lily but they knew too many Lily's at the time and wanted something more unique. I then turned to things that I liked such as sunrises and sunsets, sharks and the ocean, snails, and of course my gecko. In the end, I really liked the idea of using a gecko foot to stamp my work not only because I think their feet are kind of fascinating and funny looking but because it's like a hand, to represent that this piece was handmade with thought behind it.

This piece was made out of clay. We first took a cherry tomato-sized plastic piece of clay and formed it into our basic stamp shape. We then let it dry out a little bit until it reached the leather-hard stage where we could begin to carve it. Because I wanted my image to be stamped the same way I drew it, I used tracing paper to reflect the image onto my clay. After I transferred my image onto the bottom of the stamp I began to carve away the negative space to leave just the foot remaining. I used various carving tools including a needle tool to carve away the clay from between the toes and a square looped tool to remove the majority of the negative clay.

I really liked how this piece turned out, the imprint looks great and I finally got to use it on my Multiple Pinch Pot chicken! The only thing that I wish I could change was to smooth the top a little more before firing, I think it would just look a lot neater and more aesthetic, but it doesn't affect the stamp's print.