52 Form Project - Week 2

Larger vase I made several years ago on the left with smaller, recent version on the right

Last week was not a confidence-booster for the 52 Form Project (in which I am planning to make a new or modified form for every week of this year). I had in mind revisiting a form I made several years ago, and was not pleased with the initial results. I thought making a smaller version of the larger ring vase (as seen above) would make it less awkward looking and feeling. I made this form based on a love of the North Carolina Moravian's attempt at making tin-glazed earthenware and more particularly, this form:

Courtesy, Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture

If you want a great video to watch, check out this video of Michelle Erickson making a reproduction of the Moravian ring bottle:


I also thoroughly enjoy five finger vases, or early ceramic vases with five openings that are fairly flat, such as this:

Courtesy, Chipstone

Perhaps this was all a train wreck waiting to happen and these are forms that should not be combined. I did not like the clunky shape of the form. This is what the initial results were:

The last one above particularly reminded me too much of this (which is not necessarily a bad thing, but not something I want to make):

By the end of the week, I threw everything out of the window (not literally) and went back to the drawing board. I took in mind my love of the ruffly edge on antique earthenware flowerpots, such as this Chester County, Pennsylvania piece from 1827:

Courtesy, Colonial Sense

I combined it with my interest in the ring vessel and below is what I came up with. I think it will look nice with a touch of blue on the ruffled edges and maybe some slight modifications.

I think it will be a nice form to hold small buds of flowers or heads of larger flowers, such as my mock up with fake daisies:

Your input on this project would be greatly appreciated! I am hoping to gain some insight into what interest there may be for the forms I develop in the next 50 weeks and how I may make the forms different, or whether the forms are just too strange for selling!