At the beginning of this semester, I was shying away from using clay and other familiar ceramic materials. I wanted to explore the possibilities of different materials that I could use to inform my clay pallet but expand artistic practices.
Lately I have been interested in the relationship between clay and water. I chose to design a vessel based on an amphora jar to continue to explore the life that water gives clay that of which can be formed into a vessel that can contain water.
I drew a curve and then revolved the curve full-circle until I was happy with the outcome of the form. Transitioning the object from mesh to NURBS object and back again, I was able to unroll the piece. I then took one panel from the unrolled form and laser cut out the shape from butcher paper.
Using my butcher paper as a template, I then cut sixteen panels out of tarpaper. Once I started cutting out the panels, I realized that I should have scaled up the size of the entire piece to make it more manageable.
I then laid out the panels onto a slab of clay and cut away the excess. I then took my angled wire tool and cut each side of the panel, still back by the tar paper, at a 45-degree angle. Taking each panel one at a time, I scored and compressed them together until the form was complete.
Once assembled, the form had a nice weight to it. I thought about how I could continue to alter the structure. I ended up making four of these pieces total, two of which evolved into a cup from where I cut off the top of the form and reconnected with the bottom. I was excited with how these pieces came out. I have never used tarpaper before, and I look forward to using it in the future as another method of hand-building.
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