Last Blog - The Vessel

What is the difference between a vessel and a pot? "$5000"

HOPE, 14 in. (35cm) in height, thrown and hand-built stoneware.
Glazes: Blue Rutile, Shino Brown, Smokey Merlot

To be honest, I did not even know what the meaning of vessel was before taking this class. I realized that how much knowledge I've gain. When I started this project, I had choices between making a teapot or clay connection. Since I had already done a teapot during my own time (Pottery Club), I chose to do the clay connection project, which I have to connect a bunch of pots together to create a form of my own. We had a really short period of time to finish this project, so I decided to throw as many pots with different form and size as possible first only then connect them. Due to the short period of time and my limited throwing skill, I did not really have a theme for my vessel.

Africa | Palm wine or water vessel with
base from the Nupe people of Nigeria |
 Terracotta and pigment | 20th century

This is one of the ceramics vessel from the 20th century I've found which the the idea and form are related to mine. We can clearly see that this vessel is a combination of the different thrown parts: a small pot at the top, a big one at the bottom and a cylinder form in the middle. Connecting pots together not only gives it an interesting form but also creates height just from 3 little pots and parts, instead of throwing a really tall pot from one try. From the caption, this vessel is used to hold wine or water from the people of Nigeria. Not only it looks great with all that surface design but also function great too.

Compare to the vessel of the Nigeria people, I would say that they would appreciate my vessel because I intentionally carve my all of my pot bottoms to give it a function. I cut out all the bottoms because I thought that I could give this to my mom so that she can put flowers in it since she likes them a lot. And I would like to follow their concept and idea of this pot of both form and surface design and coordinate in my further work.

WELL, What is a vessel?
Looking at my vessel and that of the Nigeria people, vessel can be defined as a container with form and shape with the touch of the surface design and also be able to function well. Plus, it also need to pleased viewer's and user's eyes.