Kelly Liang

5/23/2013
4
Ceramics Final: Create/Write Your Artist Statement
When I knew that our final assignment is to create either a group of functional pieces or a
sculpture that commemorates something, I thought about flowers, and wanted to convey my
fondness of flowers through ceramic pieces. Therefore, I decided to make the group of functional
pieces, one of whom I am going to talk about is a napkin box about rose garden.
Before I actually started making the napkin box, I did some research on the language of
red rose, which represents true love. Then I found a picture of a red rose and made a drawing of
it by tracing it for my bas-relief. I also made a paper model to show how I would construct my
napkin box.
One of the important things in the process of making this piece is the edge-cutting
technique, which is important to the connections between stiff slabs. In my case, if the edges are
not cut in 45 degrees before scratch-and-slip, they will not be connected well, which might result
seams between stiff slabs. This is also an important step in stiff-slab piece making.
While I was working on the assignment, I struggled with adding another layer to the rose
bas-relief, which was delicate work for me. Connecting the stiff slabs was also challenging for
me because I had to make sure the piece is seamless. I overcame it by putting coils, slip, and
scratched between the slabs in order to connect them.
The main theme of my piece is Fantasy Garden. I created a rose garden for my
napkin box to convey this theme by putting on Forest Green glaze and rose drawings. This theme
is interesting to me because I like flowers. I used to plant and take care of different plants and
flowers when I was small. Since I do not have a chance to plant flowers here, I want to plant it
on my ceramic pieces.
While creating this form, I used stiff slab techniques. I rolled out slabs, cut them in the
shape I wanted, and built them up when they were somewhat stiff. I used bas-relief technique
when I was doing this art. I traced the rose drawing on the lid, and then subtracted some clay
from the lid to make the rose protrude, and add another layer of clay to makes the rose bud stand
out more.
This piece does not only show my love for rose, but also function as a napkin box. I did
well in creating and coloring the bas-relief, which is close to what I expected. I will stir and put
on more Forest Green glaze next time, for the color is too light. I really enjoyed doing this
project.