CERAMICS
My first collaboration was with ceramics, the theme of our small project was “shadow play”. This involved working in a group of 5 from a mixture of disciplines, allowing us to gain a variety of different opinions and capabilities.
Our first task involved finding objects and experimenting with light to create shadows, as a team we worked effectively helping one another to obtain a variety of unique shadows. We experimented using ceramic feet, our own arms, pen lids, pencil cases, water bottle and books, shining the light in different directions enabled us to gain different shadow shapes from the same object. The placement of the light around the object was important as we wanted to produce the most unique shape we could. We were particularly interested in producing deformed arms and feet as the shadows created from the object already looked unusual and edgy. Alongside this we were also experimenting with books, and objects with sharp edges to create spikes which would completely contradict the soft forms of feet.
Once we had sketched around the shadows we wanted to use we created model templates of the shadows using card. To do this we each produced one shadow model out of card which allowed us to gain a better understanding of the proposal for our final project. As I have previously produced card models I enjoyed producing the shadow objects as I was confident using the scalpel, as a group we all helped each at this stage.
After discussing what we should name the ceramic work we came up with the theme ‘pins and needles’ , this is due to the contrast of sharp and soft objects and how the action we created would make the individual feel uncomfortable. The next stage to this project was producing our objects in clay, I had never worked with clay and was interested to see whether I was able to produce a similar object to that we designed on the card. Due to its plasticity at the start it made it easy for me to create the spikes required however as it reached the leather hard stage I began to notice that the clay spikes were starting to break. This became a problem however after discussing it with my group I soon realised that I had not scored the spikes deep enough and therefore they were struggling to stick to the main body of the object. This was quickly resolved by scoring both faces deeper which enabled them to tightly fix onto each other. By the end of the week we had all produced a selection of spikes and deformed feet, alongside this we extruded a piece of clay into a long tube which acted like a mobile to hand the feet from. I threaded through 5 pieces of string into the extruded tube and tied the feet to the string to they could hang independently over the spikes.
I really enjoyed working as a team to produce one final ceramic piece, I believe that we all contributed successfully to the group as well as listening and respecting other members of the group’s ideas and opinions. This enabled us to efficiently decide on a shared common goal which is incredibly important to help the group work dynamically. I think this process has allowed me to develop as an interior designer as it has provided me with the skills required to work with designers from all different types of disciplines which is important for when I work on group projects. It has also shown me that problems can be easily solved in a group because someone will always have an idea and that is why I think group work is really important as you are able to produce work which is of a high standard.
FINAL CERAMIC PEICE:
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