Coil and Carve

Artist Statement

This piece was made as a product of an assignment in which I first created a cylindrical coil pot that was taller than it was wide, and then carved a relief design into it, in addition to adding clay on top as well to build up a greater relief. For this piece, I wanted to create soft, organic female forms that wind in a unifying manner around the pot.

This piece was first created by making a bunch of coils by hand, rolling them to a a fairly great thickness with the knowledge that I would carve away significant amount at a later point. after rolling a circular slab base with the thickness and diameter I wanted my pot to be, I began slipping, scoring, and layering on my coils. After every four layers of coils or so I used the scraper tool followed by a smoothing tool to combine the coils into one form. Once my coil pot was made and fairly smooth and symmetrical, I drew out the silhouettes or outlines of the bodies and began to carve away the space between them. From there, I used small bits of clay in an additive manner to emphasize protruding parts of the body and to add three-dimensionality. Once I finished smoothing and forming everything, the pot was bisque fired and consequently glazed with a clear glaze and then glaze fired.

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted my design to be prior to starting my project, but I didn't continue to plan it out until I had my base coil pot formed and nicely smoothed. At that point, I used my sketches and loosely transferred them to the surface of my pot. So, I experimented very little with my actual design, however making the coil pot itself and then carving away from it was a new experience, so I experimented with a variety of tools for smoothing and scraping to find what worked best. Also, because I intended to use a slightly matte, clear glaze to not distract from the form of the pot, which in turn meant that I wanted to fill the surface of the pot with as much change in depth and elevation as I could.