I’ve been watching the very excellent BBC4 series about Ceramics.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b016drl7/Ceramics_A_Fragile_History_The_Art_of_the_Potter/
Ceramics: A Fragile History has reignited my love of vessels at just the right time. Fragility of ceramics is one of it’s annoying things and I am so glad I am not focussing on it in this MA. You work for so long on a whole body of work only for a technical problem to blow an entire kilns-worth of work!
The idea of making felt vessels is much more appealing as you can make the appropriate chunks and make sure they are right before you join them altogether and there is no alchemy involved! What you see is what you get. (No lurking browns or unexpected chemical reactions).
Last night’s programme reminded me how much I loved Hans Coper’s work.
I was a pot coiler or thrower rather than a slab builder – but these forms lend themselves very much to being made out of felt. At present I have been thinking about making pots that resemble things that would have been coiled or thrown – but perhaps I should be thinking more about slab builds. I will try felting through various weights of interfacing and see if it destroys the structure or needles – and if that gives the forms more structure.
It should be relatively easy to construct and if needed – to support a large form above a skinny base – to make them closed and filled with rice to give the piece stability and retain its form. I quite like the idea of making something from felt that is dead heavy!
I look forward to trying these theories all out once I have got these essays out of the way
Amelia Wilson Art 