This project was born out of reading Philip Rawson’s book ‘Ceramics’ with a foreword by Wayne Higby.

One passage from the foreword which stood out to me was his description of ceramics and its relationship to daily life, and technology; ‘This intimate connection with a potent aspect of daily life and experience is what gives ceramics its particular aesthetic interest. Even though pottery must be based on a technology of some kind, if it is good pottery it always eludes the tyranny of its technology.’

My interest in ceramics developed during my residency at the Banff Centre, where planned production processes gave way to an intuitive material approach more attuned to painting or drawing, while still deeply rooted in functionality and technology.

What I aimed to complete over the course of the 4 week material matters residency is work with the clay printer, using this quote as a starting point.

I wanted to use the clay printer unconventionally, to create elements which could then be joined or manipulated by hand. The introduction of the hand with the use of a jig is an established form of pottery, from slip casting to hand building, the use of structural aid has been widely accepted as a valid form of craft. In using methods that introduce an element of hand work and deformation, I wanted to explore the potential of the 3D clay plotter as a tool that is sympathetic to the innate qualities to pottery.

The following objects have all been created by 3D plotting slabs flat onto drywall from files first designed in CAD. The timing of each slab is quite important to be able to join the slabs while still leather hard. Due to the fragile and thin lines of the plots, the slabs dry out very fast which makes timing all the trickier. Once joined with slip the ‘vessels’ have been individually hand glazed, with a brush or through dipping, in order to embellish the patterns made by the printer nozzle. Marks made by hand and machine are working cohesively in order to create a curious series of objects that rely on both. Technical Support by Andrew Drakeford, Daniel Garrod, Logan Mohr & Darlene Nairne. Photography by Conrad Brown.

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