Art meets Function

I absolutely love it when I can actually use the art that I create.

I haven't been to the ceramics studio in a while because I've been working on creating clay flowers, but I still had some pieces that I needed to pick up at the studio.  We came home just in time to eat dinner so we immediately put our pieces to good use.  Normally I would put my side dishes for our meals in generic corelle plates, but these bowls were the perfect sizes.   I was telling Bernie how I felt that the food tasted so much better knowing that we were eating out of pieces of art that we created!

My father-in-law commissioned me to create a mug before he left for Korea. However, the turnaround in the studio is kind of slow so he wasn't able to see the final product after it got fired in the kiln.  I tried to create a one of a kind design, but it didn't come out exactly the way I had imagined.  It reminded me more of a 5th grade ceramics project, but I love it anyway because it was truly a labor of love.   While I was in the process of making the design, my ceramics teacher looking at the piece with a puzzled look told me that it reminded her of a jacket that she owned.  I looked at her and immediately knew that I would probably have to make another mug for my FIL.  I've kind of adopted the mug myself and have been drinking out of it everyday!

This last piece I worked on is a sculpture I did in class.  On that particular day, we had the privilege of sculpting a live model. I've never sculpted a figure before and my only experience with the human body was in drawing.  I had so much fun that day and never new how much I enjoyed reinterpreting the human form through clay. Everyone in class was really inexperienced with this, but we were all happy with what we created. Some people tried to make a abstract interpretation of the body, some literally tried to make the figures lifelike and as for me I tried not to make it a mess=)