Random Lines
Our piece today is not dissimilar from yesterday’s piece, but it’s differences delineate another approach to the simple application of elements.
A large swath of continuous color is halted by a mix of color here as well, only in this vase by China’s Frank Khow (known as Beefball Papa on Flickr),the feel is crowded and energetic instead of being quiet and still. Yesterday’s work was simple and sparse, but today’s is more about abundance. As you can see, abundance doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, abundance is an easily visible proliferation of one thing, which in this case is a series of revealed extrusions. The draw to this comes from the impact of textural contrast–busy visual texture against a smooth and solid visual texture.
The effect is so strong here that the same busy versus quiet application can be presented with different color combinations or forms, and you’ll still have a similar feel and impact. You can see what I mean simply by visiting Frank’s Flickr photostream where he has several examples of this technique to compare.
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I like this too, though trying to work out if it’s pottery or just highly glossed PC. Either way it’s gorgeous and his other designs are beautiful.
According to Frank’s Flickr information, this is polymer and it certainly looks like it. I don’t know how you’d create the color snakes with ceramics but I imagine there might be a way. This is just a really great example of a highly polished polymer finish.
I, like Jo Nortcliff, wonder if this is a ceramic or pottery piece. There’s something about the look of the dark color at the bottom that makes me think of ceramic glaze (which I used to work in). But it is lovely. And the color patterning on the top could so easily be repeated with polymer. I love the serene,smooth serenity of the vase with the busy, colorful, bursts of color at the top.
I use glass, ceramic, porcelain, and other materials as armatures for my polymer clay sculpted vessels. I believe he uses ready made armatures and creates his beautiful work upon the armatures much like a painter uses a canvas. Creating a high sheen on the polymer can be achieved with a buffer, buffing cloth or by spraying with PYMII and baking. PYMII leaves a high gloss.