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January
2004 - Issue #16 In This Issue ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ One Inch + One Hour = Creativity What can you do with a one-inch cube of clay? Can you really spend an hour working with only that much clay? This was the first two thoughts that when through my mind at a recent workshop given by Richard Notkin. Richard started his workshop by taking a big block of clay and cutting it into roughly 1-inch cube chunks of clay and tossing them to each person attending the workshop. Then a box of simple tools was passed around for everyone to pick one. These were basically Popsicle sticks with one end sharpen to a point. Richard then started a timer and told us we had one hour to make something with the clay we received and the real kicker was - we had to use the WHOLE hour. He also instructed us to not talk during the one-hour period. There were several attendees with a look of surprise on their face, mine included. How was I going to work on one inch of clay for 60 minutes? Well everyone got to work on their piece of clay, and I will say the exercise created several challenges. In the beginning, the clay was too soft to create slabs to construct a piece. As the hour progress, the clay quickly dried to the point it became difficult to form pieces with out cracking. As the hour progressed, I felt I was "done" about three or four times, but I continued to press on, adding a new feature, texture, or shaping. The requirement to use the whole hour definitely forced one to push the creativity bounds. When the exercise was over, all the works of art were placed in the middle of the room and the process was critiqued. It was amazing the variety of works that were produced and how people's opinion of the process had changed. A majority of people, at the end of the process, felt the hour was not long enough, which was definitely a different opinion than most had at the beginning of the exercise. Another common theme was most felt the work they created in the exercise was not similar to their normal work - meaning, most people were exploring new potential avenues for their work to take. Finally most felt, working on a new idea or theme in miniature was a
great way to flesh out a concept before committing the time (or clay) to a
full sized piece. Give it a try! You may be surprised. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
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Gary R. Ferguson - Raku Artist (c) Copyright 2006, Gary R. Ferguson |
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