Chance Taylor's covered jar, 12 in. (30.5 cm) in diameter, wheel-thrown and altered porcelain, glaze, fired in oxidation to cone 10, 2024.

My pots are curvilinear, soft, and voluminous. They have an expansive feeling that connotes growth, abundance, and generosity. I divide my pots symmetrically, using line as a means of projecting order onto my forms and highlighting volume and curvature.

The relationship between form and function, between nature and culture, and, ultimately, between our needs and the things we make to fulfill them are recurring themes that I explore in my work. It is my hope that my pots can find their home in the rituals and rhythms of daily life. I believe that in this capacity, as a thing that is a part of life, something as mundane as a cup can fulfill our practical, aesthetic, and psychological needs. The objects I make connect with life, culture, and ritual through use. Covered jars speak to preservation, separation, commemoration, and even mourning. These vessels speak to fundamental realities of what it is to be human. 

1 Divide the trimmed, leather-hard form symmetrically into four sections. If the clay is too dry, the coils may crack. 2 Slip, score, and attach a soft coil from the rim to the foot at each mark. Refine by pinching and blending the coil.

3 Use a damp sponge to refine each coil. Use very light pressure and as little water as possible. 4 Bisect each coil through the foot ring to cut out two curved wedges. Repeat the process on the rim.

5 Pull a handle, attach it, and refine it through further pulling. Allow it to set up, then shape it into an S-curve. 6 Add ornamental finger rests to the handle. This acts as both a support and as a visual extension of the handle’s curve.

 

 

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