Technique & Process: Making Places: February is a full room installation comprised of 51 ceramic sculptures. They were created using the same cone 6 clay body recipe as my former body of work, Making Marks. Each stack in this series consists of multiple modules to form the larger sculptures. The sculptures range from 5 to 10 feet tall, so over 1,000 individual modules were made for the full installation.

I start my sculptures by creating small cylinders thrown on the wheel, which are then altered into organic shapes. Once they have firmed up, I texture them and enclose them by adding slabs to the top and bottoms. The final step is to cut holes in the modules so they can stack onto a post. Additionally, special attention was given to the pedestals on which the sculptures are displayed. Each pedestal was crafted to include an interior structure for stability, along with a hole on top for a metal rod to be inserted. This design allows the clay modules to be stacked securely, resembling large ceramic beads strung on a post.

For this exhibition, the color palette of the work was greatly influenced by the winter landscape of snowy northern Wisconsin. The sculptures are left unglazed, instead colored white by clay slip. To apply the slip, I used a spray gun and a ventilated spray booth. Brushing the slip would have obscured the fine texture, but spraying the material allowed for a thin coating, preserving the texture while enhancing it with color.