the lovely and trusting emily told me I could do whatever I wanted. so I did.
since the timing was tight, this was kind of a figure it out as you go sort of deal. (not that I really do anything but...) anyway, I decided early on that I would prefer to do separate bowls and a platter set rather than one plate with indentations in it. knowing that throwing a platter large enough to hold 6 bowls on the wheel would be somewhat problematic, I decided to hand-build. so I found some small bowl molds so the whole thing would be consistent in its hand-built-iness. the platter was a different story; the mold I initially used turned out to be just too small, so I found one in the studio which would work.
I toyed with ideas of how to decorate it for quite some time until it hit me that my scribbles and/or lines motif would be perfect. I decided that a hand-drawn looking line which connected all the bowls would be pleasing to well, me, so I went with it. when I started drawing, I realized that the line would be a lot more wavy when viewed from the top than the perfect circle which was in my head. so I drew multiple lines, which you can line up any which way you please. I liked the connectedness of it and how everyone can have their own interpretation. I love how they turned out. my only disappointment was that the platter warped in the glaze fire, so the bowls sit a little more askance than I intended. dang platter. if I had to do it all over again, I would choose to make the platter part differently.
I forgot to measure the plate before I sent it out, but the bowls are about 4.25 inches in diameter x 2 inches tall.
I drew the lines with a black underglaze pencil and then put perfect white glaze over the top. when you do that, the lines turn kind of ball-point pen blue. the backs of the plate and outsides of the bowls I glazed pure white matte, which matches nicely with the perfect white in tone, and gives them all a nice shiny/not shiny contrast. told you I was going to experiment with that a bit. (more to come!)
anyway, here she is. and yes, I had a meltdown trying to get the photos to turn out right. and yes, despite my photoshopping, the color is still all screwy, blown-out and jumps around from photo to photo. and yes, I will try a less complicated camera next time. (since I can't make this one turn out the same every time, let alone between one photo to the next...)
and yes, I think I will make another seder plate.
hand-built and dated february, 2011
S O L D (04.18.11)
see? warp-age.
this is the closest to showing the real color of the dishes, though they are significantly less creamy in real life:
