Willi Eggerman Ceramics

Willi Eggerman Ceramics I enjoy making useful objects with clay. I hope that my cups, bowls and vases go beyond function and blur the line between craft and art. My forms are my canvas for drawing and painting, with texture, glazes and oxides in my palette. In the last decade I've been sculpting figures and organic objects. I've also been making ab... stract 3D wall pieces. I love watching a personality emerge from the clay and the freedom to play with line and color outside of the pot too. Through studies in sculpture, drawing and painting with masters in the field and by taking on new challenges and personal assignments in my studio, my work expands with new interests. It grows with fresh techniques and talents I have to offer. I began using botanical motifs in my work several years ago as a metaphor for the human stages of life; a project about change and aging. I see the seed pod as a symbol of women and specifically of motherhood. Natures sculpture, it is beautiful as it forms, swells, opens, and yes, even as it disintegrates. I revere the strength and practicality of its form through all of these stages. Each seed pod, flower or leaf in nature conforms to the patterns of its family, genus and species. Still, it has a posture that was created by the forces of the wind, water and sun it has endured. Likewise, I want my creations to be a marker in time of my thoughts and endeavors. Its my hope that people will connect to what I am making and get so much more than just use from my work in clay. In some of my work I use a technique called mishima. I draw into the clay with a knife at leather-hard stage, refill the ditches with black clay slip, then scrape and sponge away the excess to reveal a wonderfully fine line. Though labor intensive, I enjoy this scribing and the painterly canvas of each piece. The work is made either on the wheel and altered, or from thin slabs. Pieces are dried slowly to keep them from cracking, then bisque-fired and finally brushed with glazes and oxides before firing to 2,350 in a salt ...Read More