birds
Osprey, 2020, glazed porcelain, 10 x 4 x 3 inches
Goldfinch, 2018, glazed porcelain, 6 x 2 x 2 inches
Bluebird, 2018, glazed porcelain, 6 x 2 x 1.5 inches
Oriole, 2020, glazed porcelain, 7 x 2.25 x 2.5 inches
Titmouse, 2020, glazed porcelain, 6 x 2 x 1.75 inches
Waxwing, 2020, glazed porcelain, 7 x 2.25 x 2 inches
Blue Jay, 2020, glazed porcelain, 9 x 2.5 x 2.25 inches
Veery, 2020, glazed porcelain, 6.5 x 2 x 1.5 inches
Cardinal, 2020, glazed porcelain, 9 x 3 x 2 inches
Creeper, 2015, glazed porcelain
Goldfinch 2, 2015, glazed porcelain, 3 x 5 x 2.5 inches
Bluebird, 2018, glazed porcelain, 5.75 x 5 x 3 inches
Brown Thrasher, 2018, glazed porcelain, 5.75 x 10 x 3.25
Catbird, 2015, glazed porcelain, 5.25 x 11.25 x 3 inches
Oriole 2, 2008, glazed porcelain, 4.25 x 7.5 x 3 inches
Oriole 1, glazed porcelain
Warbler, 2015-18, glazed porcelain
I make a bird out of plasticine, an oil-based clay. I then make a plaster mold from the plasticine prototype. I use this mold for casting porcelain slip and/or for pressing porcelain clay into.
The unfired cast porcelain is very fragile. Parts crack, cave in and/or fall off. Sometimes I try to put the parts back together before firing and sometimes I leave the damage “as is”. I’ll glaze the piece and after firing, the glaze and the flaw are melded together. The flaws are a part of the object.
Many unexpected things happen to the glazes that I formulate during firing. I find more surprises in homemade glazes than in commercially prepared glazes.
I like the idea of the impossibility of perfection and the idea of keeping an object, despite its flaws. I also think of birds as representing spirits, be it human or other, and that they have defects. But they are in the world, nonetheless.