Egg Cartons and Inspiration
How does this pivot moment feel — as I switch from gathering stories from others to sharing my making process? Thank you for asking, friend! At the foundational level it feels spacious and good and wrapped with ease. Process and I keep company on a daily basis so there’s a steady stream of it to tap into. At the same time, this fresh focus means finding ways to flow (disappear into the moment of making) and to be self aware, to chronicle the process progress as well as surrender to it. We’ll see how that unfolds as we move forward.
Intuitive
Making is deeply intuitive for me. For example, my first class on my first day in grad school was Three Dimensional Design. I worked alongside twenty plus undergrads as we followed the project schedule. About mid-term I veered off on my own adventure (grad student perk). I migrated into the sculpture class and learned to make a silicone mold. I used that to make wax forms for casting glass. [gallery size="medium" type="slideshow" link="file" ids="9194,9193,6311"]That was the start of a series of multiples that turned into a piece for my thesis exhibit three years later. See the long-ass title and description included under the illuminated glass bottles in the slide show :)
Choices
Decisions unfurl in this way for nearly all of my choices as a maker. Start here and then migrate over there.From color, to scale of work, to material used, I trust that the next right thing will appear or call to me. Some folks, like me, conflate intuition with inspiration.
in·spi·ra·tion | \ ˌin(t)-spə-ˈrā-shən noun
“This moving little word may be traced back to the Latin inspirare (“to breathe or blow into”), which itself is from the word spirare, meaning “to breathe.” It didn't take long to establish itself in a figurative sense, as our earliest written English uses of inspire give it the meaning “to influence, move, or guide through divine or supernatural agency or power.”You tell me about your practice of supernatural agency, and I’ll try you about mine! Really, I don’t know how inspiration (much less breathing) works. But I do know that the more I’ve learned to trust myself, the more inspiration flows to me and through me. Happy to talk more about trusting ones Self in another conversation.
Chicken or Egg
Which comes first when making? A concept or idea, or the material to make the new thing? I can’t say with any certainty. I can say that I am a stumbler and I am also easily seduced by materials. Much of my work starts with making before I know my WHY.This May—my birthday month!! and I celebrated ALL month long—I made a plaster mold of an egg carton to cast ceramic slip (liquid clay). But the mold was a failure for slip casting. I put it aside and tried orienting a smaller egg carton in a different way so that I could pour slip. So I made two molds.Again, not what I wanted!Here’s a short video to show process stages. Yes, I poured plaster on my actual birthday! Notice my crown on plaster pouring day. If you missed the good news, I am now 60!!!!!
Egg Carton
Why an egg carton? I’m glad you asked! To me it’s a metaphor for home. Home is a powerful idea and word that came up over and over in the Who Is My Neighbor? stories. The more I talked out loud about the ways a ceramic egg carton conveys meaning the more my conceptual thinking evolved. A safe space, one hopes, a place of protection and belonging. Yet when made of clay the container (house/home) becomes fragile, uncertain. This material choice plays with the old phrase Walking on eggshells. How many folks know about fragile homes? Where could this simple art piece go from here? I’ll keep working on this and let you know.
Circle Back
I looked at the “failed” first mold. Instead of casting slip, could I use it as a press mold? Why not try! I slab rolled ordinary clay and then pushed it over and around the plaster mold. Like this:
It worked! Here is what that lovely outcome looks like. That light dusting of white is talc—just the thing for easy mold release.
Now to fire this beauty and figure out what comes next. Give me a shout if you have any questions about past or current work. I like hearing from you.Happy Processing,