The riskiest stretch of this build comes right at the start: liquid slip piped in web-like lattice patterns onto carved concave plaster molds of varying sizes. Nymla handled it with a plastic squeeze bottle fitted with a metal needle applicator, and the slip-on-plaster approach produced very organic textures. Once dry, the fragile pieces came off the molds as perforated domes and cones, then got refined with carving tools and finished with slip dots around every opening. Lattice that open looks lovely, but it must be nerve-wracking to lift off a mold in one piece.
The body of the vase was cut from a block of clay with a wire cutter, then hand-pinched into a wide hollow bowl. After trimming, the outside was smoothed with a damp brush, textured, and dotted around the inner lip. A slip-cast flange was built up in stages to accommodate shrinkage, which seems like a smart bit of planning for a piece with this many separate parts.
The spirit itself is a small hollow clay figure shaped like an acorn or bulb, grooved vertically with a ball stylus, with molded clay leaves fitted on as wings and a headpiece. Petroleum jelly brushed on the dry rim kept the next slip layer from sticking, and the spirit was test-fitted inside the bowl using a paper-towel-wrapped cone and a wooden skewer as temporary support. The whole piece is stoneware, glazed near the end and fired in an electric kiln.
One open thread: these spirits began as tea strainers that did not turn out well, and the maker kept making the little figures on their own afterwards. Whether a flowerbrick really keeps flowers fresh unusually long if you befriend one is left as the maker's own charming claim.
Project by Nymla. Watch it on their YouTube channel: