This is a work I made for my final grade in academy of fine arts. It took me a year and a half to finish it. At first, I made a study of the form, started to cut the moulds from cardboard in different sizes, building the dolls by hand, mould the 'tummy's', scoop out the 'tummy's', cut the form, finish the inside of the doll, cut the glass (someone from the glass course helped me with this), fired the glass in the shape of the tummy, made glaze samples, fired the glaze samples,... the whole process was repeated nine times.The essence of this work had to do with the tummy-feeling and how they all fit into one whole 'person'. In my daily being, emotions and feelings play an important role. They define my personality and my state of mind. They are the mirrors of the soul. In the tummy of the Baboeschka's, there's this little feeling - it consists of a little something which I found that represents those feelings. It is then covered with glass so you can actually see it. The glaze is one I made myself trying out different recipes. It's off-white and has small crackles which I love. It took me ages to get the right recipe for this work.
There are four basic feelings:
Fear - spider
Happiness - sun
Anger - needles
Sadness - tears (made form transparant polymer clay)
These basic feelings accompany a lot of emotions.
Beside those four basic feelings, I chose five emotions that are important for me and in my life.
Love - heart
Admiration/amazement - mirror
Luck - chinese goodluck-dolls
Freedom - cherubwings
Vulnerability - eggshells
You can find more photo's in Flickr.
My other ceramic work was inspired by this one.
I love Baboeschka's - can you tell? :)
