My studio has a kitchen!
Friday, February 22nd, 2019
Ridgeway Studios’ clay studio and woodshop are in a cottage that I lived in until 2009, complete with a working kitchen and sunny windows.
Yesterday I was working with underglazes on two different colors of clay. Surface design for clay has been a long study. It is only after working with pyrography and color on wood that I begin to see the amazingly easy ways to design for the clay surface, starting with the plasticity of the forms. The bottle in the darker clay, for example, was shaped while wet with four sides, while the top remains round. This suggested squares for the application of color.
Surface design only works when the form requires it for a sense of wholeness. That is, it has to be much better with the surface design than without it. I think I have been intimidated by that standard for a long time.