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POTTERS
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COLUMBIA
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Typography, Contd from Page 9

end products. The cups were successful
in themselves, unrelated to any concept.
They were merely vessels with unusual and
original form. As 2-D typography, they
were strengthened by the concept of a 3-D
beginning. The actual cup objects did not
exactly work as letters, as message-makers.
‘This was an important lesson in beginning
with a concept or framework to develop pure
form.

My second cup project was again an
investigation and a functional object
undergoing tweaks or, in this case, evolution.
I approached the handle as an appendage
evolving off of an organism, changing its
original structure and appearance. Though
bearing the appearance of flimsiness or
uselessness, the handles of these cups were
actually surprisingly functional, bringing
the cup into greater contact with the hand.
Sensuality ruled.

Since returning from Finland, I find myself
constantly renegotiating the context in which
I place myself. | have come to recognize and
accept that objects are inextricable from our
daily functioning: eating, drinking, bathing,
working, moving from place to place- we
need things. As a ceramist I support this, but
Iam also disturbed, dissatisfied with our our
disconnect from these objects- everything is
disposable, singular, unprecious. Because of
this, I see myself motivated to explore making
objects that can function on a daily level, but
that also have the ability to force, foster, or
inspire a certain experience.

‘The project .A Non-Rival Good was my first
foray into this idea. In standard economic
terms, food is considered a “rival good:” it can
not be consumed by more than one person
simultaneously. I created a series of plates
that playing on this concept, turning a meal
into a non-rival good. An individual plates
needed one or more others in order to stand
level. This resulted in the group of plates
butting up against each other, degrading
the boundaries between eating space; people
sharing the plates have an equal access to the
food on each plate; metaphorically speaking,
a rival good becomes non-rival. Out of the
context of economics, I see the non-rival
good as speaking to a larger idea of sharing
and. interconnectedness, relating the feeling
of positive intention and community to a
common action.

Now entering my final semester in the
Emily Carr Ceramics studio, I guide myself

Top: Evolved Cups (2010). Above: A Non-
Rival Good. Right: Cupface (2010), cups
outlining letter forms, from A to Z.

with these questions: How do objects foster
community? How does the hand come in to
play in both the creation and the interaction
with the objects? How does form create
action? And, most importantly, how can
ceramic objects become re-sensitized in our
daily lives?

@aevvpoa
quvuvwa ype
a@e@eou@oea
< eo Ae ee ee See Fy

Emma Walter is a fourth year Fine Arts Student
at Emily Carr University. She is co-curating,
alongside Kelly Austin, a ceramics-based show
entitled Please Bo-Not Touch. The exhibition
will be opening at the Concourse Gallery
running Feb, 25 to Mar. 4, 2011. Please visit
the ECU Ceramics blog at http://blogs.eciad.
ca/ceramics/category/projects/ or contact
Emma at ewalter@ecuad.ca for more details.

Book Revi CW By Patty Osborne

Studio Ceramics, Advanced Techniques
Ceramic Arts Handbook Series

Edited by Anderson Turner

Published by The American Ceramics Society
ISBN 978-1-57498-308-1

136 pages / $29.95 US

This volume from the Handbook Series feels like a collection
of everything that couldn't be included in any of the other
handbooks, and thus the articles are not united by any one

theme. However, intermediate potters should be able to find,

among the 29 articles inside Studio Ceramics at least a few that could be used as jumping-

off points for their own work. The most useful topics include making teapot handles out

of wisteria wood, making stamps from plaster or from polymer clay, making agateware,

decorating with marbled slip, and using image transfer for surface design. Also included

is an article on throwing to-scale miniature pots or one on throwing a 26-inch high bottle

in three pieces. Seven of the articles cover more one-of-a-kind art pieces that are beautiful,

interesting, and/or downright wacky, and in these cases the instructions for how to create

these pieces sometimes take away from the impact of the pieces themselves. Rather than

being a must-have resource, this book might be handy to keep around the studio or

classroom to flip through when one is in search of inspiration.

Potters Guild of BC Newsletter « February 2011

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