ceramics and the ones who create them
Hello my lovely reader!
There is a certain calming notion to working with your hands, especially when all the other work you need to perform is focused on digital products. And I am so glad that I was able to have fun with this kind of work for a part of this past week. The class on branding and making repetitive designs was brought to me and my colleagues by Philip Kenny, a Limerick based designer who owns a pottery studio in the city.
It was an interesting change of pace from the usual routine of sitting and taking notes in the class. We were tasked with creating a small design that can be turned into a mould for pushing out clay. I decided to make it a fun process and created a mould with a creative rendition of eye washers on it. Yes, you heard it right, eye washers, and now you might be asking yourself why? Well, first of all eye washers are one of the most fun shower/sink designs I have ever seen in my life. They just have that something in their design that instantly makes you smile, and no, I do not aim at becoming an eye washer designer, I just enjoy appreciating them from afar and taking pictures of them, a small, crazy, personal collection.
And so a flowery eye washer design came to life with a side view of a bowl and the eye socket elements turned into flower buds. I can’t be sure if anyone would be able to identify what they are supposed to be, but they surely are small pieces of design I enjoy. Additionally I decided to create moulds of my logo that I could use further during presentations of my designs or when I get a heavyweight metal piece to stick to the bottom of them, as fabric weights. I then got to sticking the clay into plastic bowls and filling those with plaster of paris which allowed for their transformation into proper clay moulds.
Few days after the class the second part of the creative task took place and I was able to push some of the shapes for me and my friends. I also got to make a small clay shark which was a really nice addition to the mix. I have to admit that working with this type of clay on rather minimal designs proved to be a slightly different experience than the ones I previously had with the medium.
In the past I have sculpted with clay a few times during art classes at school or home, and I had in my room in Poland a bowl that I made while attending mediaeval survival themed summer camp. I have also made some small clay bowls for my redesign project last semester, so due to my research into that process I was familiar with the steps required to produce a finished clay product. Other than that I was mainly familiar with ceramic painting rather than the mould pressing and bisque firing processes. I have to admit I would really enjoy joining a pottery or glass design making course if I had the opportunity to. The process seems messy but at the same time weirdly calming and provides joy from seeing your creation come to life step by step. It is like a relaxing session in the form of artistic self expression.
This work also brought to me a memory of an information shared with me by a fellow designer friend from Poland who also currently lives in Ireland. She was working previously in Joseph Welsh studio and now designs furniture in a studio in Limerick. My designer friend was talking with me about a university she was attending in Poland and after talking with Philip as well about the ceramic and glass manufacturing spaces in Poland and especially Wrocław I got interested into doing a little bit of research about the Eugeniusz Geppert academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. This is possibly one of the only spaces in Poland that specialises in glass and ceramics design and from what I’ve heard they have their own glassworks. Such a cool thing for a college to have. Isn’t it? I think it is great when the spaces for designers have a lot of different amenities on their grounds and/or are able to share such spaces with others and allow their students to have free access to them. My small appreciation space of this sort at UL would be the sewing booth.
Another design, and ceramics related thing I wanted to mention to you was the artist and designer Ai Weiwei. He is a Chinese designer who explores art through different mediums. His pieces are a lot of the time a commentary on the contemporary culture and crisis situations around the globe allowing for introspection and reflection of the ones who get to observe his art.
The design notion of glass and ceramics are such a fascinating little field and I have to say that I have grown to have an appreciation towards the designs that come out of those fields. Because they are a lot of the time the designs we are using on our daily basis, as jars, candle containers, kettles, pots, cups and so much more. Just look around and see how many of those ceramics and glasses you are using on a daily basis. Probably a lot and I’m not even counting in tiles and sinks or other bathtubs. It all comes from a place of product design.
Well, that was interesting, but I would like to let you know that this is the end of today’s design rant brought to you by my designer problem of the week: when you have multiple project deadlines coming up but they all line up within the same two days.
Love,
The one and only Maria K.