The premise for our third project can be tracked back through multiple/long histories in the production of ceramic objects. It connects to the notion of division of labor between craftsperson/artisan and designer/artist that a couple of our readings have touched on.
On Thursday we looked at the website for Moss Design a store located in SOHO selling a range of contemporary high end design editions. Among these are ceramic objects, and many of these were manufactured in European Porcelain/Ceramics factories (Meissen, Nymphemburg, Wedgewood, Sevres) that have been producing ceramics as luxury goods for hundreds of years!
Historically new designs were provided entirely by a staff of full time artist/designers employed by the factory. There has been a contemporary trend among many of these factories to invite/commission designs for editions from artists and designers who have not necessarily designed for ceramics before. These artists - in many cases - are particularly interested in the historical associations evoked by the quality of material (clay) particular to that factory as a component of the content/meaning of their design.
For this project you'll combine the activity of artist and craftsperson/artisan to both design and manufacture the first 3-10 pieces of your edition.
Central to the project is researching/reproducing/using a clay,glaze, or surface decoration with a historical precedence.
Here are some links to get you started on your research:
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cera/hd_cera.htm
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/sevr/hd_sevr.htm
http://www.meissen.com/index.php?id=8&no_cache=1&lang=1
http://www.wedgwood.com/
https://www.mossonline.com/
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3793608
4 comments:
For the product design assignment I will be making a black slip in the style of black basalt. Josiah Wedgewood named and started manufacturing black basalt, sometimes called Basaltes, in 1768. The color comes from the volcanic rock basalt, often found covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs (Code of Hammurabi).
The density of black basalt does not require glaze, rather can be polished to a dull gloss.
http://www.thepotteries.org/types/basalt_ware.htm
I will be constructing a black porcelain chandelier with corresponding interior decorations. Like Wedgewood, the body of the chandelier will be matte finish, but accents will be highlighted with black gloss glazes.
well i guess tyler is the only one of us to post something before the crit. as for my product design assignment, i chose to use the Egyptian Paste which ended up much different than i expected. from the crit we had, you all saw the different pieces i made and discussed the new routes i could go with this material. from what i have learned through the different techniques, the EP works best for small pieces. but is great to construct with once fired. there is much more i would definitely like to do now knowing what i know from working with the material and having the crit. i was so stuck on building one whole object out of the EP that i lost the elements of sculpture and creating something from multiple pieces.
when i researched EP, most of the pieces were small and used for jewelry. i have a lot of those small pieces that i could easily turn into beautiful jewelry, and i wish i would have thought to create a line of jewelry and wearable items. but with all this, i learned a lot from the process and feel i gained a lot for future projects.
For the Product design assignment i started to research the china doll as an object. I was interested both in the mass production of the object and the formal aspects of what the dolls were. With the different ideas of what these dolls represent to people and how they come across to different parts of our society. The common association with these objects is there creepy presence in rooms. There glassed over faces create a frozen in time spirit of the creator and the model for each.
I first was going to make my own set of dolls, but with a lose of interest i decided to create busts with brick heads. The bricks i wanted to create the same vivid color and connect each piece with the color to make a relationship between the same physical clay objects with minor differences in the glaze jobs. I want them to not feel mass produced, but handmade and have flaws.
In the final product the flaws of the product were physically evident and showed the process was not at all similar to the main inspiration of the china dolls. With the explosions of the bricks these pieces are similar and yet opposite of the actual china doll.
We finished all these already, but to be on safe side, I will respond about the idea of manipulating an existing basis for a design. The concept of appropriating an idea/ visual seems to be a great way to reinterpret the meaning, original desires, etc of objects. You can easily take something and by changing its context/placement change what it stands for and even to some extend how we look at it. Kyle says its not necessary to respond to this post.
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