where the process matters so much more;; part 1
oh well in case you didn't know i've been taking pottery for about 7 years on and off but i only started throwing last year. here are a few pictures of my works ^^
for me, pottery has been a way to get away from the stress of everyday life. there is just something very therapeutic about sitting on a chair for hours on end watching a lump of clay shape itself into an artwork. in order to make pottery, you have to have the "work with whatever you've got" mindset, especially for throwing. Unless you're an experienced potter who can make exact replicas of vases or bowls, there is no way for you to predict what a little nudge will do to your work. neither is there a way to predict how the glaze will look, whether it will spread evenly, or it will flow down the sides. It is this level of unpredictability that I really like about pottery. That, and the fact that the process is always more important than the final.
For paintings, you look at the composition, the subject matter, the forms, the brushwork - in other words, you look at the final and how it looks, because that is the point of painting. but it is a different case for pottery. when you view a pottery piece, the main point is not the form, nor the colour. it is imagining how the potter made the work, how he made a sculpture like that, or how he made the vase curve that way. pottery is also a very personal thing, because only you know how the entire process from wedging to glazing goes about. only you can look at one of your works, and recall the memories of shaping and trimming, of colouring and polishing. it is this aspect of clay - that the process matters so much more - that holds the attraction for me.
these two bowls hold a special significance for me because they were the first ever pieces i made when i first started throwing. i especially like the one on the left, because of the colour combination i chose - stormy grey outside, and mother of pearl inside with shino beige for the rim. the grey flows down the side like rain and clouds, as though its really stormy grey and the whole feeling is just very subtley complementary C: you might guess from the pictures that i like to paint my pieces in glazes that flow, and you'd be right. i especially love the glaze mother of pearl - a runny glaze that appears transparent in less layers, and white in thicker ones. a good example of a use of this glaze would be the second picture. it's a pot painted in cobalt blue for the bottom half and liberal amounts of mother of pearl at the top. The result is that the mother of pearl flowed down the sides of the vase during firing, mixing attractively with the blue ^^ ever since then i have always liked the combination of white on dark blue. the third picture is a work that was more experimentative. i was actually inspired to try it when i saw one of my teacher's work - a slim vase with thin layers of colour running down on each other. so i decided to try it out by adding mother of pearl in between layers of colours to make them run and it worked! (sort of) :D the first picture is one of the few i have that doesn't have runny glazes. its the combination of a matt beige with a glossy clear brown. the effect is very simplistic and elegant in its simplicity c:
oh well in case you didn't know i've been taking pottery for about 7 years on and off but i only started throwing last year. here are a few pictures of my works ^^ 
for me, pottery has been a way to get away from the stress of everyday life. there is just something very therapeutic about sitting on a chair for hours on end watching a lump of clay shape itself into an artwork. in order to make pottery, you have to have the "work with whatever you've got" mindset, especially for throwing. Unless you're an experienced potter who can make exact replicas of vases or bowls, there is no way for you to predict what a little nudge will do to your work. neither is there a way to predict how the glaze will look, whether it will spread evenly, or it will flow down the sides. It is this level of unpredictability that I really like about pottery. That, and the fact that the process is always more important than the final.
For paintings, you look at the composition, the subject matter, the forms, the brushwork - in other words, you look at the final and how it looks, because that is the point of painting. but it is a different case for pottery. when you view a pottery piece, the main point is not the form, nor the colour. it is imagining how the potter made the work, how he made a sculpture like that, or how he made the vase curve that way. pottery is also a very personal thing, because only you know how the entire process from wedging to glazing goes about. only you can look at one of your works, and recall the memories of shaping and trimming, of colouring and polishing. it is this aspect of clay - that the process matters so much more - that holds the attraction for me.
these two bowls hold a special significance for me because they were the first ever pieces i made when i first started throwing. i especially like the one on the left, because of the colour combination i chose - stormy grey outside, and mother of pearl inside with shino beige for the rim. the grey flows down the side like rain and clouds, as though its really stormy grey and the whole feeling is just very subtley complementary C: you might guess from the pictures that i like to paint my pieces in glazes that flow, and you'd be right. i especially love the glaze mother of pearl - a runny glaze that appears transparent in less layers, and white in thicker ones. a good example of a use of this glaze would be the second picture. it's a pot painted in cobalt blue for the bottom half and liberal amounts of mother of pearl at the top. The result is that the mother of pearl flowed down the sides of the vase during firing, mixing attractively with the blue ^^ ever since then i have always liked the combination of white on dark blue. the third picture is a work that was more experimentative. i was actually inspired to try it when i saw one of my teacher's work - a slim vase with thin layers of colour running down on each other. so i decided to try it out by adding mother of pearl in between layers of colours to make them run and it worked! (sort of) :D the first picture is one of the few i have that doesn't have runny glazes. its the combination of a matt beige with a glossy clear brown. the effect is very simplistic and elegant in its simplicity c:
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