Exciting discovery
During my numerous encounters with specialists of the brain, I am always on the search for a scientific explanation of what ceramicists do, why they do it and what neurologists think of their work.
This summer I met Noa Bregman, a valiant teaching professor in TelAviv who specializes in Alzheimer disease. Her answer to my question what we can do to prevent the contraction of this terrible illness, she had but one very quick answer: exercise!
So much for the general idea to help all my friends to stay healthy until old age. Noa asked me in return what I was doing for a living, and I stuttered this and that, writing a little, making things with clay… I showed her my website. What a surprise, when she summarized my unarticulate confusion with the same witty sharpness. She thought, I was trying to make something meaningful.
how grateful I am to have found out what motivates me, what drives me to never stop thinking of improving my body of work and the ideas behind it.
In fact, this is the most accurate explanation of everything I do full time: I try to make something meaningful. Be it through painting life experiences, drawing kilns from ancient civilations or making ceramics with the help of the kiln.
Making a meaningful present
Let me take you through my process of making such a meaningful object.
It all started with my son, who overheard a friend talking about her search for a 3D portrait of some family members. He thought that I was able to make that, and established the connection. It was clear, that my client wished to find a Birthday present that is different from the usual after-shave or tie. Something for life. Based on simple trust I was commissioned to make two sculptures. One for each cousin made in the same style.
The first step was to make a sketch from the tiny digital image she sent me, depicting the boys from the front.
Starting with a sketch
Material
With all my knowledge, I picked out a paper-porcelain for the white shirts and a darker clay with a certain amount of iron, which would be a perfect skin color without any glaze. Following the idea to use the same materials for the two bodies, I used slabs to shape the shirts, with designs of exotic and natural places cut in the leatherhard porcelain. The heads were sculpted and later hollowed, with a strong emphasis of the positive emotion of the smile. This is especially complicated and I am grateful to Tip Toland who so freely shared her skills teaching her course at the Mariana in 2019 .
In the kiln for the first time
After the bisk fire and sanding I applied pigment into the cuts and glazedfired all pieces seperately. The final stage was to fit the elements together and sand the faces to a soft sheen.
The drawings on the perfectly white paper clay using cuts with a scalpel and oxide paint with manganese, which later disappered and was replaced by more resistant ceramic pigments
During each handling there was a risk of damage. I was worried that something could crack, break off or melt during the firing process. With more experience I have become so much slower moving around my work
Packing the very fragile yet voluminous statues was a challenge. Everything has to be thightly secured, strapped with bubble-wrap and placed in a big enough box where nothing could move around.
Delivery
Bringing the package to my client was super exciting. I had to be careful to consciouly slow down. Before she opened the box, we had a nice cup of coffee together and chatted in a nice and somehow atmosphere of patient friendlyness. The moment of unwrapping one of the scultures together was a delightful experience . My client always held her arms out with acute readyness to capture the precious thing should it be necessary.
Standing behind the figure she has never seen before she stood behind it her hands touching it, immediately feeling protective for this representation of her young family member. A couple of other people came to have a look, smiling.
One of the statues in the hands of my client
to be continued…
December we will know the reaction of the two Birthday-Cousins, when they shall be presented with the statuettes I imagined with the help of one photo on whatsapp…