Project; A Setting 'Keith'

Our task was to create a place setting consisting of a cup, a plate and an implement based on our project partners. My assigned partner for this project was Keith Murray.
The first thing I did once assigned this brief was to conduct an interview with Keith. I asked him various questions and took down his answers. I then went away and researched various aspects of the brief. I researched dictionary definitions of a plate, a cup and an implement. This gave me more of an idea of  what I would be required to create.
Having done this I examined Keith's answers to my interview questions. I drew out a list and looked for common links. I found he had strong Irish roots, close family ties and a love of rural Ireland. I researched Irish ceramics hoping to find a style that I could use to represent my findings. I began to zoom in on Irish sponge ware. I looked first at classical examples before moving onto more modern versions of the style finishing with sponge ware methods and techniques.
I carried on my research into plate, cup and implement definitions and then started drawing out possible solutions for each factoring in the different parts of which they each consist. For example a plate consists of, a rim, a base and a foot. Each aspect of the plate leaves room for different scope to convey a information about my subject to the viewer. A larger base but thin rim might indicate greed or decadence.
I decided that my current information about Keith was more of a general overview than a true assessment of his character and created more questions to set to him. Once I had acquired his new answers I began creating new brainstorms and searching for even stronger links.
I settled on two phrases 'Down to Earth' and 'Made by Hand'. I then brainstormed these two phrases and simplified it into hands, texture and earthy. From these phrases I then started considering red earthenware and traditional handmade objects, perhaps with organic references.

Ceramic Project; Harmonica

 

 The item I selected for this project was the harmonica. I chose it because I found it interesting both as a physical object and as a childhood toy with musical capabilities.

 The first thing I did once I had selected my object was to brainstorm. I looked at objects that appealed to me in similar ways organising them in small groups. This helped me examine the exact qualities that appealed to me in the harmonica.

One of the most interesting aspects of the harmonica for me was its packaging. I began to draw and photograph the harmonica illuminating different aspects of its design and packaging. I posed the photos so that I could examine the harmonica in various stages of undress. The sharp contrasts of the architectural forms and the differing in its tonal qualities interested me.

 I created a model based on the harmonica and its design. The purpose of this model was to illuminate the qualities that interested me most about it and to try and convey the more practical aspects of it. I made the colours brighter to exaggerate that it is a children’s toy, I tried to convey the fact that it was mass produced cheaply by making the model out of cheap everyday materials and producing it almost carelessly; this was designed as a statement about the mentality of cheap labour. The words ‘made in China’ has almost become a form of pound shop code, meaning ‘will break within month if removed from packaging’.

Working from this model I took some of the aspects of it away to form pattern designs. I was interested in patterns because I wanted, at this point, to focus on the design aspects of the product.

 I began to create more pattern designs based on the outer layer of the harmonica casing. At first I simply just switched around the colours but then I tried to create different shapes and forms within the limits of a reshaped square/ rectangle form.

 I made small 3D boxes decorated with images based on my pattern designs; each box was about 5cm high, wide and long. I then photographed these boxes and then experimented by stacking and arranging them in different orders.

I then tried seeing what would happen if I made the pattern more 3D. I worked with different textures and mediums while experimenting with this.

 I then reviewed my 3D boxes, putting them as my new starting point for this project.

The things I found interesting about the boxes was that they were stackable, their shape, their bright colours and their decorative patterns.

I decided to work from a new angle; what would happen if my boxes weren’t cubes?

I then used the same experiments on spheres, cones and pyramids as well as cubes.

I played with the patterns making them more 3D cutting in and adding on to the shapes in my sketchbook.

I have an interest in drawing and when I saw the raw forms of these shapes it reminded me that when your learning to draw you’re often advised to draw the main shapes that the form is made up of; i.e. For a human figure you’d use mainly circles/spheres and ovals/sausages.

I then made a more complex shape that of a human head, neck and face, and tried to apply the same techniques to it that I had to the other shapes.

I then started experimenting with reverse forms. I’d make moulds in clay of a piece I’d already contracted and then examine its reverse image in the clay.