go big

With no exhibits or big adventure plans on the docket these days, I’ve been keeping busy in the studio with mostly little projects and one BIG experiment. I figured that this is the best time to play and explore with out the worry of a deadline. So when I mentioned to my husband Nate that I wanted to try to make my hand-held-sized rock candy pieces big, like really big – he jumped on board to help me figure out how.

He came up with a contraption to help support the form and ultimately built one in wood first using the contraption as a support system for each of the panels. We rolled out thick slabs of clay, let them dry until they were stiff and then used the wood panels as templates for each plane of the new rock. We were able to get the whole thing together in a day, and while it’s got a few kinks that need to be worked out, it’s looking pretty good. This piece just barely fits in my kiln corner to corner, but I could go taller and still have it fit in the kiln, so we’re working on another template shape. I’m hoping that I can have a few different base forms that I can modify in the clay version so that they are all unique pieces in the end.

I also made a few medium sized pieces using paper templates. But I found that the paper models were too flexible and I ended up with slightly curved planes instead of flat ones. It’s a work in process, but I’m sure that I can figure out a way to make them this way too.

I’m hoping that the final forms could be used as unique low seating, as architectural elements in a garden, encrusted on a wall or even stacking them up like a totem with a steel rod on the inside, really the possibilities seem endless. But the real question is, what color should this first big baby be??