The first project for integrated studio is focused on self care. When thinking about self care, the first thing that pops in my mind is food, or healthy eating. To me, self care doesn’t always mean healthy eating because if I am in a really bad mood, eating whatever I want or cooking whatever I want ( then I will definitely eat them) is an act of self care. The process of cooking and eating calms me down.
Introduction
Cooking and baking was a huge part of my life before I came to NYC for college. On weekends I would cook my family brunch; every once a while I would bake various Western or Chinese style desserts and snacks, just for the fun of it. Therefore, my family of three always ends up with many left over bites that I will share with my friends at school. The entire processing of creating food from collecting ingredients to the final styling is incredibly satisfying to me.
When I moved to NYC, I rent an apartment downtown to avoid the unbelievably expensive cost of dorm. However, the apartment consisted of nothing but a wood floor and four stoves–I will have to make it a “livable” home from the very beginning of buying a mattress. For a month now, I have been using bowls and woks to eat most meals I cooked because otherwise I will have to use paper plates. Although most basic needs of living by myself is purchased, I still haven’t found the right plates that is functional and aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, as a project of self care, I decided to make a set of ceramic plates for my apartment that encourages me to eat healthier and inspires me when I cook.
Design & Making Process
At the beginning of the design process, I was choosing materials and thinking about the appearance my “product.” Ceramics came into my mind immediately not only because I have recently participated in a ceramics orientation at the Making Center, but also because I have always been a fan of hand building clay work since I was six. Ceramics also turns out to be the most feasible material for self made tablewares as it is buildable and also safe to use along with food. Then comes to the shape and form of the plate set. I was very certain that I did not want any regular, symmetrical shapes of what a normal plate would be, otherwise I would just purchase adorably decorated tableware from stores.
I thought about how I love cutting vegetables and fruits on a cutting mat and just enjoy the feeling of the knife slicing down onto the object. Tomato has long been a controversial topic in the food field.The argument of it being a vegetable or a fruit has been going on for years and still remain unresolved. Therefore, I settled on the idea of using tomato as a key element to my plate set. This way, I can be reminded to eat both more fruit and vegetables for a healthier eating habit. So I sketched tomato slices to begin with. I soon realized that tomato slices are flat and relatively thin, which makes them the perfect shape to stack on one another and create a plate container for dishes. Then I began to sketch the overall look of a tomato plate.
The drawing process also helps me make my mind clear on how I will build the plate with ceramics. To begin with, I took evenly sized small bits from the larger clay block and lied them on the table one by one. Each small bit will then be made into a tomato slice. This process is almost like making dumplings with my family during the Spring Festival. After having four or five small balls of clay on the table, I used my palms to flatten each piece so they have a basic form of a tomato slice.
Then using ceramic tools and a real life tomato, I created tomato patterns on the the flattened clay pieces one by one. Creating the first ones were fun and interesting, however, when I got to the fourth or fifth one, this task began to be dull and time consuming. So I divided the steps of creating this tomato pattern into the following steps: 1) carve a circle at the edge of the round piece; 2) use the flat point tool to create the concaves (usually five per slice) that face the center of the round piece; 3) use the sharp tip tool to mark several strokes on the center of the round piece; 4) use the same tool to mimic the seeds inside the tomato on each concave marked in step 2). Then I started to do each step individually to all the flattened pieces I created. For example, I will carve a circle around the edge of each flattened piece I made and then create the concaves. This makes the entire process faster and more interesting to do.
After I created enough tomato slices, I began to layer them on top of one another to create the shape of a plate. Not soon after that I realized a problem: a plate needs to have some depth in order to hold materials.
If the slices are layered on top of each other, creating different heights for the plate, it will only end up to be a decoration piece. So I decided to bend the slices with the help of a paper plate at the side a little to create a gully. Now the plate looks like it can hold something. I have a few extra tomato slices after I made the first plate so I figured I can make another plate, a lager one. So I started making more tomato slices for the second plate.
So here is the finished larger plate. For this plate, I used my hands to curve the edge because the paper plate is too small for modeling it. It was difficult to create because when I bend the edge of the plate, the pattern of tomato slices I carved previously would be smudged. However, it leaves some of my fingerprints which I very much enjoy to have.
In addition, the technique of joining two pieces of clay together is also very interesting for me. To do so, identify the two sides that you are joining together and the amount of spaces you would like them to overlap. Then use the scratch making tool to create cross etches on the two sides of the the two pieces. Then add water on the scratches and carefully place the two sizes together.
With the single tomato slice I have after the two plates, I decided to leave it alone to function as a coaster. The process of creating the two plates wasn’t long but I was in love with the feeling of working with clay. Therefore, I created random shapes and slabs to create a mug–I am also lacking large cups for satisfactory hot drinks. Apart from creating the objects for self care, I find the act of making ceramics soothing for me. It calms me down and brings me to a place where my clay and I exist. This makes me to want to actually start making ceramics regularly for a self care act :).
The next step to making clay objects is to let them dry. Before bisque firing, the clay should be bone dry, meaning completely dried from inside out. This usually takes 24 to 36 hours. When they are bone dry, the clay turns pale white or reddish brown.
The last thing I did when the clay is still wet was to print my signature and date on the bottom of the pieces. Below are pictures of the pieces I made after they are dry on the bisque firing shelf before firing.
Bisque firing takes about 6 to 7 hours and about a day to cool off. Pictures below show how the plates and the mug look like after they are bisque fired. The next step after bisque firing is to apply glaze. One reason is for aesthetics, glaze provide color and gloss to the surface of clay work. The other eason is the for food safety, glaze can also separate bisqued clay from food.
Glazing is also fun and soothing for me to do, however, it requires adequacy in skills. For example, the glazes I bought were to be applied 2-3 layers in order for the color to be fully shown after glaze firing. This means I will have to apply multiple times on the pieces I made. However, once glaze or any liquid is in contact with bisque fired clay, the liquid will be absorbed by the clay immediately, leaving little trace of the previous application. Moreover, different glaze also have different effects on different clays. It would generally be a great idea to test out the glaze prior to applying it to the final “product,” but due to time limit, I decided to apply differently for each piece of tableware and see which ones turn out to be ideal.
On the sides are the first two pieces of work I glazed. The coaster was glazed three times with red and two times with lime green on top of the red glaze. Then the larger plate was glazed with two layers of lime green at the beginning and then finished off with two layers of red.
This smaller plate was glazed with lime green on the first layer and then two layers of red. After that, another layer of red is applied. Then I looked at the larger plate and decided to apply another layer of red on the edges of each tomato slice so that they can look more lively after the firing.
The glazing of the mug was a more complicated process, as I want to distinguish each individual component that made up the mug. I also added two Chinese characters on the mug, one under the handle saying “good,” and one inside the mug at the bottom saying “cheers.” This addition of Chinese characters reminds me of home, which also match with the idea of hot drinks in the winter. Now that the pieces are glazed, the next step is for them to be glaze fired. One important thing about glazing is that the application should be with 1/8 inch above the bottom. If the glaze gets under the object, it may cause unwanted chemical reaction such as explosion inside the kiln.
Images below show the tableware set after two firings and the glazing. I am very happy with how each piece turned out despite they have different effects of glazes as I applied them differently. I feel each plate has its unique style in terms of tomato slices.
Conclusion
This project is self graded based on a rubric created by BAFAMFAPhD at Hauser and Wirth. The rubric contains two main parts: Contemplative Practice and Studio Habits of Mind; each part has individual sub-criteria that could be ranked from 1 to 4 points.
As I am very satisfied with the final outcome of my project, I gave myself 4s on most of the criteria except “WISDOM” in Contemplative Practice and “ENVISION” Studio Habits of Mind. This is due to the time management and planning at the beginning stage of the project.
We had two weeks to complete the project, from designing to actually finish making the project. However, ceramic is not the most efficient material to work with. The two firings were completed at the Making Center where they have scheduled firings once a week. Although my works were finished bisque firing before the critique, they were not allowed to be taken out of the kiln as they were still cooling down. This resulted in me only having a photograph of my works before they were bisque fired for the critique.
Therefore, for “WISDOM,” I rated myself a 3. If I have had more clarity in thinking about the firing processes and the extra time that should have been planned into the process of making this project, I would not result in getting merely a photo critiqued. Similar for “ENVISION,” if I imagined the making process in enough detail before actually carrying it out, I would have planned more time to make.
If I were to do this project again, I would probably change my idea into making something quicker to produce. I still do not regret making these plates for the project as now I am using the plates and mug everyday when I cook or even bring take out home. These tableware truly make me feel like I’m at home and are useful. Nonetheless, to speak in the terms of finishing a task on time and planning ahead, I should definitely work on those areas so in the future I can be more focused on the task rather than what I want to make.
