For our third and final project, we were to reflect in upon ourselves. Thinking along the lines of what makes you, you- the last assignment was a type of self portrait. It took me a long time to get started on this one. I went through many ideas- even settling on a few but I could not bring myself to make any of them. Finally, one night it just clicked and I knew exactly what I had to do.
I had to nest.
I decided to use Paper Clay for this assignment- something I've never worked with. The Paper clay recipe I used was essentially a cone ten porcelain with ripped up toilet paper pulp. The addition of paper to clay can be beneficial in many ways, including the ability to go thinner and more delicate- a property I definitely needed for this body of work. The paper also burns out in the firing - making the finished object much lighter.
I started my process by rolling out many skinny irregular coils.
I tried to keep each coil as organically formed as I could.
My next step was to take a bunch of plaster hump molds and
drape, arrange, and weave the coils together, as organically as I could,
to form a stylized bird's nest.
I was even fortunate enough to have a bunch of real nests
in front of my as I worked, courtesy of a nice friend!
I was even fortunate enough to have a bunch of real nests
in front of my as I worked, courtesy of a nice friend!
I also created a bunch of "stones" to fill my nests.
Representing nothing in particular but everything at once, these stones were great fun to make. I just rolled small balls of clay and threw them on the table to get some interesting angles. I then waited for them to set up a bit more before I spent some quality time smoothing the sides out with my thumb.
Here's a look at my ten finished nests ready for bisque!
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