This semester I am taking Ceramics I having very limited experience with clay. It was a crash course for the first few weeks. The Professor has you make 6 cups in just weeks. She makes you watch these videos on each of the techniques that we are supposed to try- coil, pinch, soft slab, hard slab, handles, functional and non-functional, etc.
The first step is to find ugly bowls and transform them into a cup. The cups have things that must be included but, otherwise, you have creative freedom.
Being an artist who needs to create things in collections and/or around themes, I started to think. One of the requirements was that one of the cups had to be kind of centered around someone whom you would like to have tea and a conversation with. I immediately thought of my grandma, but the Professor said that it had to be recognizable to most people. I immediately thought of the Buddha. I am a lay Buddhist. I studied for 2 years and practiced for 20-something years. However, when COVID hit, I did not fare well and did not practice meditation, I couldn't go to my yoga studio, and I didn't feel like creating any art. I feel these things missing in my life. So this project was like an awakening. I still don't care for ceramics very much but I am glad that I am pushing through and learning a new skill.
Back to the concepts and techniques behind my series of cups. Knowing that I wanted my pieces to reflect Buddha and the time period around when Buddha was alive on Earth during his life as Siddhartha Gautama, I wanted to bring in elements of Buddha, Buddhism, and monks of that time period in general.
Here are photos of my brainstorming and sketching my 6 cups.
Cup #1 is utilitarian in function, has a handle, will have a rough or stone-like texture, is made with a pinch pot, represents water for Buddha to drink in the Yonchap offering bowls, contains red to represent life force, and I would like to try Mjolica with a reddish stain on top. Wipe back the stain to make it look old and antiqued.
Cup #2 is utilitarian in function, has 2 handles, is made from clay coils, contains a pattern, represents food in the Yonchap Offering Bowls, uses greens which represent karma and balance, will be dipped in majolica and stained with different colors of green.
Cup #3 is utilitarian in function, has a handle, contains a narrative image for the Bathing of the Buddha ritual which represents the purification of negative karma, is white for purity and knowledge, and will be a soft slab, dry brush majolica, and sprig the scene on the cup.
Cup #4 has a handle, is sculptural but refers to function, has a pattern as a composition (basket weave), is made of soft slab, represents light in the Yonchap Bowls, will be yellow like sunshine and the color of monk's robes, and will be dipped in majolica or use slip to decorate. I used the concept of the beggar's bowls of that time period, made it into a cup and abstracted the shape some.
Cup #5 is sculptural but has a secret life as a drinking vessel, contains flowers to represent the opening of one's heart, will use blues for healing, dipped in majolica, and stain lotus flowers. This was inspired by the monks' offering vessel.
Cup #6 is sculptural, a secret drinking vessel, made of stiff slab, represents sound in the Yonchap Bowls, uses black to represent turning bad into good, will be dry brushed majolica, stain on top. This piece was inspired by the guitar-like instrument from that time period called a Dramyin.
