BARBARA KNEZEVIC
What is your favourite material to work with? Or is there a material you return to regularly in your practice of making? I find clay to be a really haptic and enjoyable material to work with, it's so responsive to handling and has such a long history as a sculptural material. It's something I return to often. Drawing and using watercolour is also a simple and valuable tool for me, I find it useful as a transitory device to move ideas toward material form. In and of itself, it's liberating and full of pleasure and really unexpected in the way it behaves.
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What materials are on your desk now? Or what materials are you currently using? Clay mostly, in several different types. I have a black textured stoneware clay I'm working with to make sinuous vessels, a terracotta crank clay for large urns and a smooth white clay for some coiled forms. I also have a large collection of watercolours that I am using to create a print for fabric for a forthcoming show.
• List the actions you have taken with this material? Eg cut/ roll/ smudge Roll, extrude, coil, push, pinch, smooth, scrape, gouge, cut, squeeze • Can you suggest a material to include in the pack..... Either some plain buff clay or people can easily make salt clay using a combination of flour, salt and water in the following quantities, bake in the oven for 3hours on 100 degrees. 1 cupful of plain flour (about 250g) half a cupful of table salt (about 125g) half a cupful of water (about 125ml) •Do you have a suggested action(s) to begin working with this material Yes, start by rolling snake like forms, and coiling them on top of one another in a circular way, this is the basic way of forming a simple vessel. Be intuitive and start to experiment.