Making stacked forms

Building on the smaller scale black and white stoneware stacked forms I decided to make one in grey stoneware and also to attempt a larger scale one in white stoneware, at a scale that would be big enough to become a floor standing piece.

I followed the same principles of making the forms that I had done previously, and mocked up the stacked effect whilst the pieces were leather hard to decide which orientation and position worked best. I then numbered the pieces so they could be reassembled post firing.

The forms are constructed in a very simliar way to those that are standalone sculptural works with multiple connections, the challenge was to determine how to manage the spaces in between the separate components so they would both sit correctly and look balanced and this took a degree of trial and error to get right.

Below are the separate grey stoneware clay components after bisque firing,.

Deciding what glaze to use on this piece  was tricky, I didn’t particularly like the black crawl on the grey, I felt a bigger contrast was needed so I opted for the copper carbonate lava glaze I had used previously. I wanted the glaze to create a sense of flow and movement, so stacked the bisque forms onto the supporting stand before applying the glaze, these pieces were then supported in the kiln with clay posts to ensure the glaze stayed clear of the kiln shelf.  Below is the piece with glaze applied.

The steel support posts made for all of the stacked forms would be trimmed at the top after the final glaze fire to allow for further shrinkage of the clay body. Below is an example of the posts I had made, I was planning to deliberately rust the bases of these stands as I felt that the warm colour and decayed  look would compliment the work.

I was really pleased with how well this concept had translated into a piece of sculpture, I think it works well and has a very different look to the more traditional ceramic totems that I have seen before.