Creative Gaga: The Enthusiastic Creative Journal

I am absolutely thrilled to be published in the Creative Gaga Magazine and more importantly making an appreance on the Front Cover! This is a quality magazine circulated mostly in India.

It is very well put together with great images of my work in a four page layout. Here is the writeup.

Handmade Solutions:

There is a love and attachment that passes on from the creator to the consumer when something is handmade. Moreover, when these pieces come as design solutions to everyday affairs, design gets a new meaning. Charan Sachar comes out to be an artist with an endeavour to add this design-dimension to his creations.

Clay transcends the distance between art and design. From all the mediums I have worked with, clay gives me an opportunity to make three dimensional art which can serve the purpose of function as well. The whole transformation going from a lump of soft clay to a form that is created from one's imagination, resulting in a solid piece of solution, is an experience in iteself.

Culture is an accidental mentor. India's amazing treasure of art and culture has been me since childhood. Without a conscious effort, the colors, patterns, motifs etc. seeped in me as I grew up to be a visual artist. It is magical how all the small things that I was exposed to now find a way into everything I create.

Every problem either has a solution or a beautiful solution. At the core, pottery is all about creating functionality. But if you want the user to go beyond usage to experience, aesthetics will have to fit effortlessly into the larger design scheme. The shape of the form or its beautification can, for instance, make a huge difference to the way even a mug can transcend the shelf space to acquire an emotional space. It is the ultimate aim of any creator to create an attachment. Experimentation with ways to solve a problem is the only way out.

Winner of Business Card Design

Firstly I would like to thank each and everyone of you who provided input on my business card designs. I wouldn't have been able to look into all the aspects of it just by myself.

The votes for the vertical and horizontal were really 50/50, each with its pros and cons, so it was a tough decision for me.

Even though I liked the vertical more when I posted the two designs, I have gotten convinced to go with the horizontal design with the input I have got from all of you.

The vertical had many challenges.

Firstly the font of my information gets reduced and if the purpose of a business card is to communicate your contact info, it should be clearly visible.

Several mentioned about it not having a conventional convinient way to store and look up.

Even though the detail of my work was very visible, I have noticed that several people don't recognize the picture of my butter dishes. It is eye catching, but several ask me.."What is that?" And with the sculpture picture behind, my functional work is not showcased very well.

To remedy that I tried including a few more pictures of my work in the vertical design, but the orientation just didn't work. Everything got too tiny when I looked at a printout.

I tried front horizontal and back vertical, and that felt like there is an error in printing the cards.

So I am going with the horizontal design.

I moved around my addresses and website, so the info side looks more balanced.

Made changes in the images.

Removed the Black background and went with a gradient instead.

Here is the final design.

(Blurred area is where my physical address goes)


The winners picked at random for the business card design are
Jim Bob Howard
Cara Zavisho and Ben Trask

Business Card Design

I need your help again! I am designing my new business card and need your opinion.

The ones which I have are not that great and this time I wanted them printed both front and back.

Another thing I wanted to try was doing a vertical orientation.

And there is something for you to gain in this too. Please comment in whether you would like Vertical or Horizontal design and also tell me why. And if you would change something what would it be.

Two random people will be chosen to receive my heart shaped pendant (See picture below). So this is a Win-Win situation!

Winner will be announced on Tuesday August 17th, so start posting your comments!

I really appreciate your inputs!

PS: Blurred area is where my address will appear.

Vertical Option:

Horizontal Option:

Vases: Old and New

I have seen working with clay as a journey. Here is a glimpse of my journey with vases.

These are pictures of vases that I have made arranged in chonological order starting from 2000 till date.

Temoku glazed with slip decoration. This was my first piece on which I had tried slip decoration back in 2000.

This is a 18 inch vase thrown in sections and gas fired to Cone 10 in deep blue glaze. I gifted this to my mom remembering that she had a similar vase in brass.

This is when I started altering my work. These were ovaled in shape after throwing and are still sitting near my fireplace.

Here is when I started extruding my vases and had switched to an electric kiln. I was amazed at the possibilities of a extruder and couldn't stop experimenting.

My Bollywood designs make an entry to my vases. The extrusions are still altered and then embelished with slip decoration.

And below are pictures of where I am now. Adding more movement, more decoration, introduction of texture.

This is a slab built vase made with textured slabs and multiple firings.

We have a Winner

Thank you all for voting and commenting about my banner.

I didn't even think of putting two different fonts, one for the main Title and the other of the subtitle. It makes a lot of sense and I like the way it looks. I have changed the banner of my blogspot and my shop. I might fuss over which font to use for the subtitle but I am sure to make it easy to read.

I did a random draw and the winner for the square dish is Frost Indri of http://frostindri.etsy.com/

Congratulations!

Oil Vinegar Bottles ready to hit the Dance Floor

Oh yes they are ready! I am thankful to the customer who put this idea in my head. She said, I have your butter dish, I have your salt pepper shakers, I have your mugs and bowls and I need some thing more for the kitchen.

I decided to make Oil/Vinegar bottles but wasn't sure what shape/design or how would I incorporate my style to them. Sometimes you just have to try out things to see how they transform.

I made a new die for my extruder and manipulated the clay as it came out. And just like that I knew where this was going.

I tapered the tops to give them a more elegant look and the decoration just empahized the curves and flow of the shape emulating the look of embroidered fabric wrapped around a body.

And I just couldn't decorate one side... they have a different pattern on both sides. The textured slip pattern also helps in getting a good grip on the bottle while cooking.

I like how they came out and would like to read your comments. Getting input on new work is really appreciated. Thanks

Why do I need to learn Math?

Parents can admit that they have been questioned several times by their kids, “Why do I need to learn Math, Geometry, Algebra….?” And the list goes on.
I for one loved doing Math as a kid. For me it was a good pass time. Yes, you heard right, good pass time. When I was asked to study by my parents and I used to always pick Math. My parents had to push me to study other things. As I grew Math and Physics became my favorite subjects.
Of course this did help me in acquiring my current job as a software engineer. So you are wondering why I am even mentioning this in my art related blog.
The fact is that I see myself applying my knowledge of Math in my art work very often. A good example are these big jars I made recently. Of course, one option was to throw them on the wheel, but I wanted to make them big and much lighter and consistent in size. So I decided to make them from slabs of clay, a technique I got more confidence after seeing the work of Ginger Steele.
For the walls, I could make straight cylindrical in shape, which would involve cutting a rectangle and joining the ends. But what if you want it slightly tapered? I would have to have a curved slab, but how big? What curve? What radius? What angle? That is when geometry and Math help. I spent several hours designing the shape that I wanted and then trying to figure out the template for the slab I would need to achieve the shape I wanted. Here is a small snippet of my scratch pad. Oh yes.. it sure has some Math there.
Once I figured out the size of my template, it was a lot easier to construct these jars. Once I knew I had the template right, I didn’t have to struggle with the shape that I wanted. The top lid seats and lids have been thrown on the wheel. I still need to go through the process of decorating them, but at this stage I am happy with the way they turned out. I will post more pictures when I am done with these.
So tell your kids to stick to Math, even if they don’t know where they will need it. It will surely benefit them in some way or the other.