Cast and carved spheres

I made two moulds for slip casting spheres in two sizes, one the size of Christmas tree baubles and the other a little bouncy ball size. This was to echo the two sizes of gel balls I had previously used in my object. Unfortunately the small spheres didn't work out as well as I had hoped. the hole in the top of the mould was too small to let the clay run out and so they eneded up being almost solid and not properly spherical. The larger size was very successful though. I kept the walls quite thin, leaving the stoneware slip only in the mould for 7 minutes before pouring it out. This meant I could carve out pieces and was left just with a lovely delicate shell. Looking at the reflections of light in my gell balls, I carved out pieces that echoed this and achieved some really nice shapes.

I painted shellac on some of the spheres to create contrasting areas of low and high relief. This burned off in the bisque firing. It created lovely sharp edges and contours.

Object inspiration for my first 2nd year project

For our first project of second year, we had to choose an object we liked as a starting point.I chose a large lamp which I carried in my arms all the way home from Egypt. It's essentially a wire mesh frame in the shape of Marge Simpson's hair with blue and green glass beads wired onto it. We then had to make the object in new materials. I played alot with creating grids and attaching two sizes of spheres onto them in various ways as this is the basic composition of the lamp. I worked with contrasting materials too- harsh wires and sticks for the grid and softer more tactile materials for the spheres.

This picture is of the final object I made- a grid created from wire and pot scrubs and flower decoration gel balls for the spheres. This object then became inspiration for the clay translation.

Ist Year: Tiny Too Little

This was a narrative project from first year. My piece tells the story of how the cup on the box with the mouse in it got broken. The little mouse is called Tiny Too Little and is a character from the story 'Never Too Little to Love'. He is in love with Topsy Too Tall and really wants to give her a kiss. However, Topsy Too Tall is a giraffe and Tiny Too Little is only very small and so in order to reach up and give his kiss, he makes a tower of objects. Sadly though his tower isn't so stable and there's a 'wobble wobble wobble CRASH!'. Poor Tiny falls down and the cup gets broken. It all ends happily though as Topsy Too Tall leans down and gives him a kiss!