The last few months, I've been exploring a different direction with my art: from functional cannabis paraphernalia, to fine art - ready to hang on the wall, and one-of-a-kind decorated platters and serving bowls.
I've been getting a little tired of making the same things over and over, craving some more creative thought involved in my production routine. I've also realized that the subjectiveness of "fine art" makes the monetary value a lot more flexible than any sort of functional thing, which is a serious consideration when it comes to making a living income from my work. I want to participate in bigger and more prestigious art festivals starting in 2025 (like Jazz Fest!), and relying on paraphernalia (no matter how cool) will really limit my options of events and customers.
So I debuted my new wall pieces and a few big serving dishes at Festival Acadiens et Creoles last weekend, alongside my planters, ornaments, pipes and all. The responses were super positive to both, and I got a lot of useful critique info while talking to people. Both fig/fig leaf bowls sold!! But the other bowls need some adjustments before they're as successful. People really loved the wall pieces with more than two items inside. Framed is a great way to display the gator, as compared to on the tabletop. Pricing is a big aspect that I need to work out... When asked directly what the new pieces should cost, people have given me excitingly high responses, but in practice, I think they might be priced too much. It's interesting to get high volume feedback on new work at art shows!
The new wall pieces are made totally from scratch - I had the wood cut by a carpenter on the block, then I assembled and finished them, and the porcelain pieces are the same items that I turn into pipes, but mounted inside the shadowboxes with metal pegs fired into the clay and epoxied into the wood. There's a lot of room for creativity in the rhythm of multiples, or the surface treatment of the porcelain pieces inside, brand new items to cast to mount (cacao pod, fish, small things, magnolia pod), as well as the details of the shadowbox.
The decorated platters and serving bowls are handbuilt (not on the wheel), then I press the same clay (not slip) into sections of my molds to get partial impressions of objects, and I attach them onto the dinnerware. The arrangement of items has been fun! And glazing them, with the choice of the background field color, is also an awesome dose of creative freedom.
However, I'm using kind of new techniques (different clay than usual, handbuilding rather than slipcasting) and I have had some sad fails, because experimenting means oopsies! Most of the serving dishes have had unfortunate cracks, from drying them too quickly, and even a couple explosions 💥 in the kiln! The wood frames are also a challenge, as I don't have much carpentry experience and I want the frames to look super high quality. I'm learning a lot with my new directions, but that's a great feeling!
Heres some process videos of making both the framed pieces and the serving dishes, and some photos of the finished pieces on display!
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