Snow Forest Tree Forms
I’ve got an idea formulating for a winter series of white porcelain/stoneware or porcelain paper clay tree forms - maybe finished with a cobalt oxide wash, for a potential series called ‘Boreal’ meaning snow forest, so couldn’t resist creating a couple of quick test tiles!
After seeing the results of the test tiles, next time I would like to apply the cobalt carbonate in a more diluted form, so it is more of a wash - loving the result though. Should try some in a black oxide too.
Thinking that this potential series of snow forest tree forms need to be slab built rather than coiled, due to the nature of the porcelain/stoneware clay I might use. This will also lend itself to the more geometric forms I have in my mind’s eye, rather than the more organic based forms.
18 April 2025
Spent a day in the studio experimenting with PF 700 porcelain/stoneware clay, don’t think we are going to be friends anytime soon! Love the colour and fired finish to this clay, however finding hand-building with it a bit of a challenge. Today I tried to build a 30cm high cylinder cone shaped vessel as a test maquette, I might have rolled the slab too thinly (5mm) - but the whole thing collapsed, even after I had left it for a few hours to harden - so frustrating. Probably need to try again using a thicker slab. Or, possibly need to try to extrude a tube, this might work…..
Also tried carving a block of solid clay after leaving for 3 days, I didn’t like the result at all - back to the drawing board (see Contour blog).
28 April 2025
Back to thinking about a slab built geometric tree form (see sketchbook 1.4.25) and how I can achieve this form - so decided to make a cardboard maquette to work out the form and it’s construction. This has really helped clarify a few questions I had, so time well spent I’d say (plus I enjoyed doing it!).
