four elements - exhibition pieces

I am looking for a gallery to exhibit, haven't quite find the right one yet. I have made three of the four elements of the pieces. Here is a preview, I won't say too much about it, as it is still work in progress.

tea jar - Loquat

I am developing new different way to use the underglaze, different way of drawing. It is more similar to the Lotus tea jar way of drawing, more western. Instead of drawing the leaf veins, it was carved in, a more obvious contrast than painting it on and made it appear three dimensional without drawing the shadow on the leaves. 

It has a lid as well but I am still baffling what to glaze it with. 

The yellow underglaze turn out really well, it tend to burn out. 

tea jar - Magnolia

This was tricky to glaze, I wanted to leave the flower, leave and some of the branches unglaze and have a gradient, indicating a blue sky background. I think  it is a very close success, the flower really stands out, I just wish the the glaze is closer to the branch. I am not sure if the underglaze burned out or I just didn't get it close enough, but it only seems to happen around the branches but around the flower. 

tea jar - peach flower

Although it's porcelain, but because of the peach flowers painting was painted in the Chinese paint brush method, I wanted to give it a bit more rustic, and antique look, so it was fired in reduction. I applied the glaze thinly to have the brown on on the side, in sync with the main part of the branch that was left unglazed. It is painted with underglaze and slip to create that color and texture.

tea jar

This is a work in progress, I painted several porcelain pieces and it has been bisque fired for almost a month. I could not decide what to glaze them with and how to glaze them. Unfortunately the most elaborate piece cracked, so I used that as a test piece. Finally decided on a few different methods to glaze them. 

First, one of my favorite theme, the Lotus.

 The unpainted area is left bare without glaze and matte. The painted area is glazed, semi glossy. I use this method because I would like the pot absorb the aroma of the tea and allows it to breathe.

It is still work in progress, I have not decide what to glaze the lid with yet. 

design background

I have been involved in design since I was 15, I studied fashion, interior, jewelry and industrial design. I graduated in industrial design, and the past few years I have been working as a Digital designer and Marketing coordinator. Pottery has always been a hobby since I was little, introduce by my mother, whom is also passionate of this form of art. It has been a learning process throughout life, from hand building when I was still too young to master a wheel, to learning how to throw as a teenager and to the more in depth glazing and firing in adulthood. 

As a product designer I prefer to create functional pieces, at the same time that's aesthetically pleasing and be able to stand on it's own as a display piece. My pieces are deeply influenced by my life experience, where I traveled, and the things that has touched my heart. I adopt Asian style as it is my heritage, and Western style as my current influence of living in Melbourne, and from that I create my own style. I love to try different variation of themes and techniques, and not to be boxed in, that's why I have chosen these series to showcase. 

I'm really lucky to be able to put everything I have learnt to use, design methodology, color scheme, and materials from different design field. Learning about DSL and taking interior photos, to taking company product profiles. The path down to design is a long journey, just last year, I picked up Chinese brush painting and started to incorporate that into my pieces.

You can see my personal stamp on all my pieces, it is the last word of my mandarin name, pronounces "show", meaning gem like stone. I have the stamp as one of the feature of my piece as I wish they represents the sprite of my work. 

I hope one day I can design an interior of a house, design and manufacture the furniture inside, make the ceramic pieces that are on display, design the clothes and jewelry I am wearing, produce a recipe book and market all that internationally. That would be putting all my skills to use.



  

Iris - extension

I painted the Iris on the vase, really love the old Japanese vase look.

vase

 I wanted to achieve a slightly more vibrant purple, as the Iris on the vase is slightly greyish purple. I achieved that but it sort of lost the old look.

four elements

I am currently developing the four elements further. You can see a few fire and water series. I want to create the series using color of the glaze. Here are a few test pieces, they are the mini version of the large piece.

On the right represents water, I wanted to show the different colors of water, like the ocean.

On the left is earth, I wanted to show the fault line you see in the mountains. 

white cherry blossom

This was inspired by Japan cherry flower fully bloomed starting to drop in the river below.

Koi series - extended

The Koi series is inspired by my trip to China. It was my second time going to Shanghai, I was quite touched by the behavior of Koi and the traditional white and blue porcelain ceramic from China. 

This one of the pieces that has received a bit more attention than others, I decided to develop it further.

This is the previous version.

http://imisabellawang.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/koi-series.html

These pieces are porcelain, I left the white bare, without glaze. The blue drops  represent the splashes created by the Koi swimming around and capture in a snap shot.

Japanese Chawan

After a trip to Japan last year, the wonderful experiences, amazing scenery and the extraordinary tea culture. I was inspired by where I was staying - Ito, I extracted the colors from the amazing nature and scenery, put it the experience of the hotel greeted us with a cup of Macha and a small sweet as we arrive in the afternoon, everything about this place is just to die for.