I was asked to create a unique ceramic art commission for a special Birthday gift.
It started with a chat about the person who the piece was required for, finding out what the person loves and what they thought she’d like.
From this, we agreed for me to create something featuring the beach, a place where the person enjoyed walking her dogs as well as the words “Love & Happiness”
The next step was for me to create some sketches of how I thought these ideas would translate into clay, within the required budget.
I created these on large, sheets of textured paper with charcoal.
One was a large, rounded, relief tile illustration of the beach, with textures of sand, sea and shells on the beach and cliffs merging into the sea behind. This could be hung by a hole in the top or mounted as a picture in a frame.
My second idea was a free standing, 3D sculptural form formed around a prism shape, with the beach illustration wrapped around the 4 sides. This piece would allow for the possibility of light shining through cut away parts or holes made, whilst the clay is soft.
On my way to meet the client, to present my ideas, a thought came to me, an alternative idea that would work, a slight change to one of the ideas I was about to present. The relief, tile design could be made into a rectangle and moulded into a wave shape before the clay dries, allowing it to be free standing. Also with the possibility of cut aways and holes to allow light to shine through.
Gotta love a creative mind, things appear out of no where, usually, when you least expect them.
It was this new idea that impressed my client the most and the one I would be creating for them.
Firstly rolling out the clay to an even thickness, smoothing the clay with a rubber, kidney tool to flatten and compress the clay, measuring and cutting out a rectangle.
The clay was left to dry overnight, so that it’s not tacky to touch.
Then I stamped in the vintage printing letter blocks to create the wording “Love & Happiness” selecting the print blocks I think will work well together as words and be easy to read when impressed in the clay.
This left me the space to create the rocks, cliffs and beach scene below.
The beach scene was added with extra pieces of clay, using tools and textures to create the rough texture of the sea and cliffs. I pressed clay into ready made casts of small seashells and seaside like textures to create an ideal beach like scene.
When happy with the design, I then propped up certain points on rolling pins and fabric to create the wave shape, enough to ensure it will stand up on its own, when vertical.
The clay is then left to dry and harden a little, so I can return and carve more texture and cut out the holes without damaging the design.
Then I added coloured oxides to colour the rocks and add a white, porcelain slip to highlight the sea foam on the waves and create a contrast from the other tones.
It’s this stage that I left it to dry out completely. If the clay is fired in the kiln with any moisture in the clay, as it evaporates it expands and causes explosions in the clay, usually ruining the piece. So the clay is always left until it is warm to touch and is what we call ‘bone dry.’
Then it has it’s first firing up to 800ºc, this gets enough moisture out of the clay to set the form and the coloured oxides.
I then added the blue underglaze to create the sky blue background, taking care not to colour the wording.
Once dry, i decided on a matt glaze to coat the entire piece, scraping it from any holes to ensure they don’t fill in during the glazing process.
The completed ceramic art commission is then fired to 1240ºc which converts the white, powdered glaze to liquid glass, which sets as the ceramic slowly cools and makes the ceramic completely weather proof for use indoors or in the garden if desired.
The art commission was wrapped and delivered to the client in plenty of time for her to present the Birthday gift to her friend. My client was delighted with the final commissioned piece of art and her friend was delighted with her bespoke ceramic gift!
