Studio journal: A cypress in clay
A familiar cypress form becomes a new experience in hand-built ceramics, within Carried Home.
The cypress keeps returning in my work. I have made it in wood, and now I am finding another way to build it in clay. This ceramic sculpture is part of my continuing work on Carried Home: objects and forms that bring me back to home, childhood and a sense of belonging.
Working in ceramics has given me a new experience of a familiar form. I built the body by hand, without a potter's wheel, bringing slabs upward to establish its shape. The interior is hollow. Across the surface, I shaped small pieces of clay individually and drew them downward into the repeated teardrop-like forms. Building that surface took time; each small element needed its own attention.
The process photographs show the pale form before its finished glazed surface. I applied three coats of glaze, working toward the tree and colour I held in my mind. In the finished piece, green and blue move over the repeated marks, meeting a warm ochre area near the base.
This is a continuation of my interest in the cypress, with the unfamiliar possibilities of clay changing how I approach it. The photographs bring the building stage and the finished sculpture together as a studio record.
View the ceramic cypress · Earlier Cypress Forms · Carried Home exhibition archive
Building stage, before the finished glaze.
Detail of the finished surface.