Work in Progress: New Shapes

I encourage my students to doodle with clay, especially when they’re stuck on an idea or just starting out with a new project, observers think that they’re just wasting time fooling around with a piece of clay in their hands but they’re not. I believe that three dimensional doodling is one of the most important things to do as a sculptor, it’s like sketching for sculpture. It’s when you go through the problem solving stage of making art, figuring out what you are doing, how you are going to do it, what surface treatments will be the most successful and maybe even start to figure out why you’re making these pieces. So I’ve been doodling these small smooth shapes for a few weeks now and the first batch just came out of the kiln. I’m not really sure what they are or what I’m going to do with them, they seem familiar yet are unidentifiable. The forms remind me of plastic toys, weird fruits or even microscopic sea creatures, I’m enjoying the bright color palette that they seems to be calling for too. They feel nice to hold in your hand during the making process and the final product, like a smooth stone. I have been thinking about creating multiples, boxing them up organized by shape or color like boxes of vegetables- all the same but each unique. I don’t know where this will lead, but let me know what you think and I’ll keep you posted on their progress.