Drawing x Ceramics 3 (Glazing Outcomes)

‘Active Volcano’, 2024

Here are my selection of ceramics! Some of them are better glazed than others, but generally, I enjoy their tactile and inconsistent qualities, even if they are mistakes to correct for next time.

The piece above I created from assembling most of the pieces together. The yellow dome at the bottom acts as a volcano, and the long shapes represent spurting molten lava, and billowing smoke.

Each element has a unique shape and represents a different element of the story. The black outline ceramic is the dark smoke coming straight from the volcano, lifting out in an unpredictable manner. Most colours don’t reflect what they’re representing, but reflect the beauty and wonder of the natural world, hence why vivid colours are an adventurous exploration of visual language.

There wasn’t an original reason for the photo angle, but I think it successfully captures the essence of natural disasters, and their chaos in turning the world ‘upside down’.

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These two pieces are my favourite, as they look the most polished, and have a good quality of drawing line. The one below has a beautiful fluid line within a line, if you count the ceramic shape as a very thick brush stroke.

I enjoy the varying transparency of the blue lines, having dreamy textures akin to watercolour. I also enjoy how I trailed off the top blue into the side of the ceramic, as I tried to enhance the three-dimensional, illusion idea.

Glazed ceramic, 2024, underglaze paints on white earthenware, fired in clear glaze

The next piece I enjoy was my favourite post-firing. The green mountain!

The Green Mountain, 2024, underglaze paints and pencils on white earthenware, in clear glaze

I love the complete inconsistency of shape, glaze, and drawing qualities. It makes for a truly unique piece. I think the pencil outline has come out quite well, which I didn’t mark heavily. Perhaps I was just lucky it didn’t smudge which has happened in previous works.

The wiggles on the side represent rising grass or long wheat fields. On the front and back are half-circle illustrations, representing the breeze of grass in the wind, especially as they are drawn at an angle. It’s meant to give the illusion of soft wind gliding through a valley.

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These pieces are now completed. I’ve learnt to be more careful with glazing in future, as you need to correctly mix and apply them in a unique way depending on the shape and size of your ceramic.

I like the potential for 3D collage, as I could encourage interactivity by exploring and creating a larger piece from the individual pieces. It would reflect ideas of building your own landscape, like kids building blocks, and encourage child-like play.

For now these will sit to the side, but potentially will go in my final show.