New Vase Forms in the Studio.

These forms have been pervading the studio lately, and have really enjoyed their planar qualities. I was doing some thinking about form recently and was thinking about some of the Shaker influences that I have looked at over the past number of years. I always have loved the oval stack boxes that the shakers used for various uses, and have become such an iconic image of their handcraft. The reason that they made the boxes oval were for two reasons. The aesthetic of the curve was both beautiful and allowed for less joints and simplicity in manufacturing. The other reason was so they would fit on a shelf more efficiently. I loved this idea of efficiency and had made oval forms for some time because of that. I have always been bothered by round vase forms because of the way that they orient themselves to a table. My mother loved putting large arrangements of flowers on the table, but I realize that they didn't really occupy the space fully. A long rectangular space with a round object in the middle seems odd spacialy to me now. I really love the idea of a flower brick which has been a new staple for many potters altering forms or hand-building pots. I have a feeling that these forms are going to stretch out more, giving the viewer more of a landscape view to the pot. I also love the idea of some of these industrially aged architectural forms spewing forth color and life in the form of flowers and foliage. Seems to be a nice dichotomy in the way I view my influences. I love the forms of old industry and the residue of production, but the produced materials are usually not to my liking, and detrimental to the environment. Duality is interesting.