Chambre Du Coeur Vase Sculpture

my ‘Chambre du Coeur’ vase sculpture was wheel thrown and altered from high fire stoneware. Its organic shape is reminiscent of a human heart – a one of a kind piece of functional art. Because of the organic shape, I rested it on top of the riser and glaze catcher during the glaze firing. This resulted in little glaze drip ‘feet’ forming underneath it. These feet have been sanded smooth and level. There are a few very minor pinholes within the rim.

There are many steps to making crystalline glazed ceramics so it is incredibly time consuming, but I hope you’ll agree that the results are worth the effort! I make every crystalline glaze in the studio right before every glaze firing, as the glazes don’t ‘keep’ well. The components need to be measured precisely to the fraction of a gram and applied carefully in numerous, thick coats. Every piece has a single-use, hand built ‘riser’ and ‘glaze catcher’ dish made to fit it perfectly for the glaze firing. This is necessary as the high gloss, two-dimensional crystals need a glaze that flows a lot to develop, and all that flowing glaze has to go somewhere. After the glaze firing, the pieces are removed from the risers and catchers by a number of methods and then the razor edged base needs to be sanded, using 5 different grit sanders until it’s baby-bottom smooth. My crystalline pieces are glaze fired to 1300 degrees celcius over 16.5 hours. They are dishwasher safe, but I recommend to hand wash them to preserve their beauty.