Leaves by Andrea Zimon

"Four Bowls stacked"

Leaves inspired these bowls.

I collected the leaves because they were to be the templates I needed to make these bowls. 

I collected them, put them in a piece of folded cardboard, didn't refer to them at all, and never looked at them again.  Until today. 

Today, when I looked at this ceramic project and the leaves in their dried, fragile state, they made me realized how meaningful and transitional this project was for me - artistically, mentally, emotionally.

I make art. The process is meaningful but rarely does the product have meaning*. Typically the finished product goes through my internal critique as I do want to grow as an artist. 

And I will do that as it is too much of a habit to forgo but I think I will sit with the parts of me that are not in artist mode and see what they have to say.  

*For me my artwork is more of diary of sort, noting more of my date than my mood, happenings, etc.

Leaves in their dried form. They were collected at different times last fall. and left in a piece of folded card board. I didn't intend to press them but that is how they ended up.

 I had a pottery assignment to make four bowls each with a different building focus- body, handle, foot, and rim.

Bowl with focus on the body. 

 This molded, stoneware bowl has poured glazed and painted glaze on the inside.

Hand painted with underglaze and commercial glaze leaves.

Bowl with focus on the handle.

 The body was glazed by pouring and dipping. The leaves were painted and glazed.

Bowl with focus on the feet.

Painted with commercial and hand mixed glazes. Tedious but I liked the result.  

Bowl with focus on the rim. 

Commercial glazes dipped and poured. This bowl collapsed under its own weight at the leather hard stage. I was able to fix it, fortunately. It's still very heavy.