Making a bust for the first time

As several of you reading my blog know that my work is very influenced by fabrics. I do tend to make something functional and have done my sculptural dancing divas too. Also did some shoes last year. This time I thought why not make a torso or bust featuring some beautiful indian prints just as they are meant to be on fabric. This is a larger scale of sculpture that I am used to but thoroughly enjoyed the process.

Here it is handbuilt and slip decorated with buttons. Had to dry it really slowly and went a little crazy supporting the insides and keeping the form.

And here it is all decorated with layers of underglazes which really enhance the texture and pattern. It is approximately 18"x 18" and goes up on the wall. I will be taking it to the summer shows and hope to make more pieces in this series.

It was a great experience to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. What have you wanted to create pushing your limits? Do share.

     

Testing to get a Color

As many of you know my pottery does have a lot of color. But getting those bright colors at mid fire range is not always easy. I struggled for the longest time to get red and after getting that 2 years back, I started on my mission to get maroon. I don't know why I do this to myself. :)

My inspiration was again from Indian fabrics. And the color maroon (a very deep red) was stuck in my head since my wedding actually (almost 8 years back). It was the color of my wife's dress she wore on the engagement night. You can see the clipping below. At that time I didn't know I wanted it on my pots but I knew I liked the color.

So after 20 -30 tests and failing at every one of them, I finally get my maroon. Most of the time the color just faded when I fired and lost its deep look. But now I finally like what I have. Check out these pots with the maroon accent.

In a way, it was time that my testing came to a conclusion. The color feature maroon was done this week on my blog and my mom sent me this beautiful bed spread in raw silk which is again rich dark maroon with gold, yellow and orange embroidery done all over.