Artwork
Craft
Design
#ceramics
#Jessica Thompson-Lee
#sculpture
All photographs © Jessica Thompson-Lee, shared with permission
Jessica Thompson-Lee twists the age-old design precept of kind following perform along with her biomorphic ceramics. Evocative of mobile buildings, coral, and mycelium networks, handles seem to develop from Thompson-Lee’s mugs, sprawling outward into lattice-like webs that require customers to fit their fingers into the amorphous shapes.
“The particular person consuming from it’s going to mess around with other ways their fingers intertwine and relaxation in/on the sculptural deal with,” she tells Colossal. “With the sculptural vases, folks can use the holes within the natural sculptural components to stay in and weave flowers via for a playful and interactive flower-arranging expertise.”
Every design is born from what the artist calls “sketching with clay…After filling a squeeze bottle filled with porcelain slip, I squeeze liquid clay designs onto a plaster slab, by no means understanding precisely how the designs will end up. This unpredictability is each an vital and pleasurable a part of the method,” she shares.
Working from her Brooklyn studio, Thompson-Lee begins by throwing a vessel on the wheel earlier than shifting into hand-building. Beginning with a thick slab of clay and an exacto knife, she sculpts the deal with’s fundamental form earlier than reducing away extra materials and smoothing the sides with a moist sponge. The artist then attaches the piece to the vessel, which she sends via an preliminary spherical of firing earlier than drawing a sample onto the floor. Rigorously layered glazes and underglazes full the colourful, summary designs earlier than the second journey to the kiln.
Thompson-Lee plans to broaden her biomorphic kinds into extra practical objects like jars, lamps, dishes, and small furnishings and has experimented with recycled paper pulp, as nicely. Discover out there items on Etsy, and observe new additions on Instagram. You additionally may take pleasure in this bold challenge to create 100 totally different handles in as many days.
#ceramics
#Jessica Thompson-Lee
#sculpture
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