When creating my side plate I began by cutting strips of clay and attaching them to the edge of a rectangular slab of clay using scratch and slip; I added extra clay to the centre of the piece to reinforce the ‘spine’ section of the book and then used various tools to carve, shape and add texture to the plate. I also added a rim to that lined the edge of the book. I repeated this process to create a second book form for the second side dish.

Unfortunately when one of the pieces was leather hard it split in half, but I manged to use slip and wet clay to put the piece back together.

As I did not have enough time to throw my main dishes on the pottery wheel, I decided to hand build them by using a mixing bowl as a mould. i started by cutting a circle and a long strip out of a slab of clay and mould them into the bowl, scratching and slipping them together to make one solid vessel. I explored the use of thicker and thinner slabs of clay for these bowls and found that the thinner bowl form, although lighter, warped easily, making it difficult to shape, add texture and sculptural aspects to the vessel.

Once the Bowls became leather hard I took them out of the mould and used a handful of tools to add texture to the bowl. I also created my family emblem and added it to the front of the bowl.

Unfortunately one of my books forms split in half in the kiln and the corner of another also broke.

Despite not having enough time to glaze my bowls, I instead decided to paint my dishes with acrylic paint, and used watercolour pencils to draw on the portraits of my mother and I. I also decided to paint my extra vessel forms to be used as bread plates.