Project: Metropolis

MA Ceramics Introduction Brief - Metropolis

Summary of aims and objectives

• Introduce basic ceramic building processes.
• Develop personal interests in construction, decoration and firing processes.
• Dialogue with peers - discuss, debate, share ideas.

Brief

To produce contrasting 5 contrasting 3 dimensional 'buildings' in clay. Each piece should be distinctly individual, which could reflect architectural styles, cultures and/or geographical locations. Each building must fit in 15cm x 15cm footprint. Different building techniques should be used.


[Full brief (restricted): Metropolis brief]


This brief was delivered by Anna Lambert, who is an alumni of MA Ceramics at UCLAN. Anna has been potting for around 30 years and has an established practice as a studio potter. Her current work is in developing fine-art based forms that explore the theme and emotions of ‘place’. Her work is fascinating and I would love the chance to learn new making techniques from her:http://www.junctionworkshop.co.uk/anna-lambert.html

Regrettably, Anna teaches on Tuesdays at UCLAN when I am at work at Newcastle, so I’m unable to attend her demos and talks but I decided that I would still try and make at least a couple of pieces for the Metropolis brief. The brief definitely attracted me because it combined two favourite interests: hand-built clay forms and architectural design.

In the end, I created two less than satisfactory pieces. One was a copy of sorts of the stunning Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich football club, in Munich: https://www.allianz-arena.de/en/index.php This building is both aesthetically and technically fascinating. I have looked at pictures of it so many times in awe and wonder.

Porcelain seemed the natural choice for material, as the Allianz is constructed from pure white panels: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allianz_Arena#Construction Coiling seemed to fit the shape far too well to even thinking of any other methods of construction. Coiled porcelain really is a not easy to work with though – porcelain is always either too wet or too dry in my experience for individual coils – I decided to make life easy and extrude fattish coils, then hand-roll them thinner, lay them all out flat together (joined using score and slip) and then wait a bit until they were firm enough to use in rows of 3 or 4 to construct the work (like Plasticine strips!).

This mode of working was sensible and it looked like it might work out nicely. I have a tendency to battle with getting materials 'into shape' too quickly - i.e. whilst they are too wet or I find myself fighting against basic laws of physics to make my constructions stay in place. The horizontal plane seems to suit clay better than most other orientations and, whilst it's not always possible to work on a flat surface, it is certainly better to do so whenever you can. On this occasion, I went on to ignore this good advice to self and thought that if I draped the coils over a tube into a curved length to start with, I would eventually be able to wrap them into a plump circular form like the Allianz. It was a nice theory but there were stronger ones at play… gravity! The coils headed towards the bench and a nice rip appeared down the centre of the group. Forget that idea then.

In the end, I just used them in groups of 3 or 4 and formed my little arena in sections pretty quickly.

I had to rebuild the arena a couple of times to get it flattened out on top. I also dried it upside down to prevent sagging in the centre.

After firing to biscuit, the work appeared solid and nicely joined. However, an unglazed stoneware firing brought out all the flaws: the clay remembered all the making and rebuilding mistakes and decided to show them to me. The coils separated in various places and the piece distorted. This didn't surprise me too much. I have enough experience of working with clay now to know when a piece will work and when it won't; at least, that is, in terms of construction (glazing is a whole other matter!). I knew that the porcelain had been under some stress and that I'd had to manipulate the material back into shape too many times. Without the project deadline, I'd have probably thrown the porcelain back into the bucket for re-use and started afresh. That said, and despite a failed outcome, I really enjoyed making this piece. There is something very satisfying about building with coils and then not smoothing them into a flat surface afterwards. I'd quite like to explore more shapes using this technique. Despite having a hankering to use it again, I didn't care for working in porcelain though. Porcelain is a thrower and caster's medium in my opinion.

Eight Towers

My second architectural work began life as a sketch for a Scottish castle based on Craigievar... but a chat with DB moved me off from that idea and on to thoughts of just making multiple random towers which, in turn, led me back to working in my own style with the inevitable repeated patterns emerging…!

Time was a factor here. Or rather the lack of it. I decided to extrude my towers and thus, very quickly, created a set of nice neat forms to work. I embellished the towers with smaller pieces of clay, hoping to establish an industrial theme (iron bars and rivets) with a view to adding a metallic iron finish in glazing. This worked quite well up to the green-ware stage and the pieces were appealing in form and decoration:

4 of 8

Biscuit firing reminded me once again that joins are important!  In my hurry, I'd failed to fix the caps on to the towers properly and (the towers being laid horizontally) their tops literally dropped off in the firing.

Reflections

So what did I learn and what can I take forward to other similar projects? A few timely reminders of things I already knew mainly:

• Unlike other stoneware clays, porcelain doesn't like to be messed around with too much. Minimal handling of porcelain is the best way to go - so good construction planning is really important.
• Porcelain dries out very easily - and doesn't have anything like the 'forgiving' nature or plasticity of other clays.
• Good joins are really important!
• I continue to gravitate towards hand-built forms with repeated patterns of decoration and enjoy this mode of working with clay more than any other.