If it holds still long enough...

I will find a way to press it into clay. No matter what it is. Really. A few weeks ago I was at the Syracuse Farmer's Market (I sell my jewelry there every weekend) and spotted a gorgeous savoy cabbage. The texture was insane, all bumpy and curly, and I immediately thought of pressing it into some porcelain clay. I put it through the slab roller so the texture would be extra deep and pronounced and then I selected the most interesting areas of pattern to cut into circles and ovals. The result is so interesting, it looks like so many things. Some of my studio mates think it looks like lizard skin, one knew right away that it was cabbage, I think it looks topographical or like the reticulated surface of metal.

A few days ago I took the first glazed piece out of the kiln. I used one of my favorite glazes, an intense matte turquoise that breaks into graphite. Using that color seemed to take away some of the organic feel and instead gave it a harder, modernist (Brutalist to be exact) edge. I like it. I have glazed the other pieces from this experiment in an array of colors, some with oxide stains and others in super glossy finishes just to see how each one changes. I can't wait to see how they turn out!