Miyazaki Inspired Creatures

As I venture further into art, I find many artists I like, although there is one artist I love in particular: Hayao Miyazaki. Nature, machine, and flight are just a few among many inspirations we share. There are strong anti-war messages in all his films without them being particularly political. The more research I do on the inspiration and origin of design and plot the more inspired I get to continue my art career. 

Below is a piece inspired by Howl's Moving Castle.

Laputa Robot

 

I made two of the following to experiment with design and pattern.

Giant Warrior Skulls (Nausicaa)

I enjoy the Japanese culture and aesthetic of simple, clean, imaginative design, so I made the following:

Martin Figure

Mountain Figure

First Teaware

Not that you don't hear enough about tea on this blog, but...

I made a bunch of teaware. There's not too much to say about it. I worked really hard and experimented with a lot of different construction methods and styles. Things did not turn out as I expected but these are my first cups and teapots.

This is a partially Chinese and partially Japanese style teapot.

After completion I saw this at the Met, I am almost there. I like the loops designed for a bamboo handle, something I will do next time.

European Style Teapot

Stingray Dish

Rustic Mugs

(for rustic cabin life)
((totally on purpose))

White Teacup

Striped Tea Cup

Colorful Teacup

Striped Cups I am learning to love,
(glaze did not turn out as expected.)

Buddhas

You may have seen this photo a few weeks ago. I have finished them! So now I shall reveal and explain the inspirations for these Buddhas. First is fasting Buddha, one of my favorites, also one of the only figure with Buddha as man versus an awakened being. This photo is from my trip to the MET.

Next, this is one of my favorite Buddhas I saw while traveling and also the one that inspired this project.

The Buddha I made is obviously based off of this one I saw in Japan. He ended up looking kind of like my advisor so I have named him Sleepy Meditating Professor Huntington Buddha. He is sleepy because his head slumped a little bit in the hotter glaze firing.

Buddha under the Bodhi Tree

(A candle can also fit inside the tree, lighting the Buddha's eyes and holes in the tree, the arrangement of the branches are based on my hair.)

Tara

Left: Chinese Monk
Right: Buddha Head

Left: Incense Burner
Right: Buddha Feet

Left: Reclining Buddha

Right: Buddha Head and Miyazaki Giant Warrior inspired Skull

First Ceramics in 14 years

I am in a ceramics class and loving it. I wanted to share the process and some of my work with you folks.

Okay, you may recognize this piece from an earlier post. It is a Miyazaki inspired lantern/incense holder/bizarre sculpture that always makes my teacher laugh. I'm not sure if that's good. Anyways this is right before the bisque in an electric kiln, after that the clay turns pinkish, then after the final firing it turns dark and gritty where unglazed. The black and white is different slips which you can use to manipulate the color of your glaze.

I have to mention, the amount of cross over between various mediums of art is huge. My concept of form comes from my understanding of form in photography. It has helped me predict certain elements.

The highly technical process of glazing:

Below is the colors I glazed each piece.

We loaded the kiln.

Lighting the kiln is a process. It's actually light it the day before, but just the "piolet lights," which is basically a torch, not your typical piolet light for a stove. They slowly raises the temperature to around 1100F by the morning. Then the kiln is turned on, the two pipes about two inches wide blow large amounts of natural gas into the chamber raising the temperature to around 2450F. This takes about 6-8 hours based on how much pottery is inside the kiln and how it is stacked.

This is a spy hole to keep an eye on the cones, which indicate the temperature of the clay versus the temperature of the air. As certain levels of heat are achieved, different cones fall over. I burned off all the hair on my hand holding it about a foot and a half away from this two inch hole. I was trying to see if it would burn my camera. Turns out it would. I safely took a photo at three feet, which was much cooler. 

Finally, the pieces cooled off and came out of the kiln. It was like christmas.

This is my mountain figure. It is strange how the glaze bubbled where it overlapped but I like it. I was trying to make him look like a snow capped mountain.

This is my lumpy pinch pot figure. It feels really good to hold in your hand. Like really good.

Here is my Miyazaki thing.

I used a glaze known as Alfred Amber to cover this entire piece. The color changes depending if it is sitting on top of white or black slip, or just on the raw clay.

My first batch of ceramics!



[Notice the faint stingray on the box.]