Jennifer Morris 'Resilience' Small bowl, 32
Jennifer Morris 'Resilience' Small bowl, 32

Jennifer Morris 'Resilience' Small bowl, 32

Maker: Jennifer Morris

Regular price £90.00

Handmade in the UK.

Dimensions: Ø 9cm x H 8cm 

Materials: Stoneware and earthenware

Method: Hand thrown vessel, reduction fired to 1270 degrees. During this process the kiln is starved of oxygen to create the reduction atmosphere. Once the final temperature is reached the kiln is crash cooled to 1000 degrees then sealed to cool down naturally. 

Care: Water-tight, wipe dry after use 


Description:

A masterfully balanced hand-thrown bowl, with an interior snowflake glaze of delicate tonal depth and rich lustre. Crazing, wherein thickly applied glaze causes a multitude of overlapping cracks, is often thought of as a defect. The crazing of Morris’ works, however, speak poetically of her material inquiries into the concept of resilience, exemplified here through the works' delicate pattern of intricate fractures and fissions. The crystalline-like patina treads a balance between different material associations, at once calling to mind both ceramic processes but also geomorphic surfaces, strata and even glass. The bowl’s exterior displays the raw clay body of its material beginnings, left bare in strong contrast to its interior.  

Jennifer Morris’ 2022 collection for Maud & Mabel entitled Resilience responds to the artist’s sustained meditation on the importance of strength and durability to navigate daily life. Exploring her material through this concept of resilience, Morris utilises both raku firing, in which clays have to withstand rapid changes in extreme temperature, alongside reduction firing, in which clay has to endure the expansion and contraction of snowflake glazes: two material processes which put the clay under significant stress. Her preference for these processes, which produce intricate surface crackling and strong textural depth, lies in Morris’ relishing of chance-based interactions that are so intrinsic to the ceramic practice - ‘You can never make the same exact piece twice and therein lies the magic.’

 

About the artist:

Jennifer Morris is a ceramic artist based close to the Maud & Mabel Gallery in Hampstead, London. A pre-foundation course in 2008 introduced her to working with clay. Morris hand-builds objects that can be easily inserted into daily life and provide both joy and function. Using an understated and limited colour palette, which draws attention to the silhouettes of her creations, Morris experiments with different stoneware and earthenware clays. Her creative process is intuitive; visualising an image in her mind and then creating it in three-dimensional form - ‘I sketch in clay, making new ideas come to life’. For Morris, this allows her to find inspiration during the process, letting her works organically develop, retaining energy and movement in her pieces.