Thursday, May 31, 2007

Little Uns

I made these little uns last year. I was inspired after a trip to Korea and thought I’d experiment with a technique called inlay, which I had never done much of. And might not do much of again! Talk about time consuming and finicky! Each little dot was drilled in and then filled with a different coloured clay. It then gets scraped back and sanded before being fired. A glutton for punishment I was (still am?). Each little cup is just 4cm high. I held on to these. There's very few pieces of my work i absolutely refuse to part with. But there was just something about these ones that i really loved. So now they all live on a sunny little window ledge in my sleepout.

14 comments:

Ursula Achten said...

How very very wonderful!! Puristic clay-love, nothing added- I love that.
A glutton of punishment?..No, I think it's an obsession with patience ;))

Anonymous said...

Thanks for commenting on my blog as now I have found your beautiful ceramics!! Oh mannnnnn, I love these bowls. Just ace!

carole epp said...

time consuming or not, these ones are worth it! gorgeous!
could you get a similar effect by painting the little dots of other color clay in your mold before casting?
That grey color is marvelous!

Anonymous said...

these are beautiful & what an interesting technique to make them.
they look very very fragile...

Anonymous said...

They look AWESOME!! Nice work!

Mel Robson said...

aw thanks everyone! So it wasn't just me who liked em!

Carol, I probably could paint the dots on my mould (that's how i do most of the colour on my pieces). I had originally planned on doing just a line around the outside rim, but once i'd started....!! And as finicky as it was I did just enjoy playing with that process.

Uschi, probably a bit of both!

Cristina, yes most of my work LOOKS very fragile, but it is much stronger than it looks! The beauty of porcelain!

Thanks Janick, and Hi Shannon!!

trisha said...

i love these! and if ever change your mind, i would love to adopt them! ;)

Anonymous said...

I love these a lot.

My grandmother had rice-inlay china when I was little. she said the potter would press rice grains into the wet clay in a pattern, and they would vaporize during firing, leaving a lacy thin/thick/holey pattern. your dots look like light goes through them they are so fine.

Feltbug said...

They were definitely worth the effort - lovely :)

Chi said...

mel, I fell in love with your porcelain pieces as soon as i came upon this blog, especially these bowls, such delicate beauty!

Anonymous said...

These are beautiful.
Love, love, love them all.

Jason said...

Your stuff is great Mel! It must of taken ages to do those uns with all that drilling!

Anonymous said...

lovely

Anonymous said...

Just outstanding work you, very beautiful!