Utilitarian ceramic objects inhabit our domestic spaces; we depend on them to fulfill a practical responsibility and they become familiar characters in our lives. It is a lax gesture to raise a cup to meet your lips or to cradle a bowl between your palms, yet these actions are also strikingly intimate and sensual. Clay attracts a tactile response in its malleable, unfired state and I impart a subtle softness in my work to invite sensory encounters with finished pieces. Soft edges and alluring curves beckon to be touched.
My work begins on the wheel where the forms I throw serve as a framework from which to begin altering. By way of folding, darting, and cutting away at this foundation, I treat the clay walls as if they were paper: trimming, pleating, creasing, and tucking in edges in the same manner as one would construct an envelope, a paper food tray, or a paper lantern. Smoothed seams are discernible to encourage users to visually unfold objects. The clay’s plasticity allows me to further modify the proportion of the form by stretching and pushing the form. This editing process is controlled and deliberate to some extent, but also swift and somewhat guided by form. In the culmination of my technique and philosophy, I hope to capture the softness of unfired clay in a refined, elegant form.