Element of Nature

The purpose of this project was to make a functional form with some element of nature worked into the form. Starting this project I knew I wanted to make some sort of cup or bowl. I was very inspired by a pot that Josie Spaulding made last year during ceramics 1. She made a pot with a tree and plants, and I really liked the look of this (pictured left).  I ultimately decided to make a cup with many elements of nature encompassing the cup. I included a tree as the main point of my cup, and then smaller creatures and plants surrounding the rest of the cup. 

To start this project I used a slab and cut the ends at an angle, that way when I rolled the slab to form a cup, it would be wider at the mouth and more narrow at the base. I struggled a little bit with making all sides of the cup even, but in the end I was able to make it pretty smooth and even. I then used another piece of the slab to make the bottom of the cup and attached them. I originally wanted to make some sort of wave design inside of the cup, but I ran out of time and couldn't get the waves to look the way I wanted so I just smoothed them out. I opted to just glaze the inside of the cup with a blue glaze, C-21, that way it still resembled water.  On the outside of my cup, I used C-41, C-56,and C-55 to colofully glaze my creatures and plants. I specifically chose these glazes so that the glaze would pool in the designs and indents in my cup instead of just fill them in. 

If I were to go back and change things about this cup I definitely would. I wish I made the cup a little bit bigger because I didn't account for the fact that clay shrinks in the kiln. I also wish I glazed more of my designs on the outside of the cup. I was nervous to glaze a lot on the outside of the cup because I thought the glazes were going to become runny and blend together. So I tried my best to keep them from touching. But in the end the glazes did not blend at all and I know I could've glazed the outside more. Overall I am happy with the way this cup turned out and I think it will make a great gift for one of my family members.