Welcome to my Sculpture Process Page!
Here I will be chronicling the progress of some of my projects—particularly that of the Voynich Manuscript Sculpture Project, and explaining some of the artistic process through photos, videos, and writing.
This ongoing project, in which I am designing and sculpting three-dimensional interpretations of the illustrations in the Voynich Manuscript, will combine the mediums of porcelain sculpture, flameworked glass sculpture, and plasma art. I will periodically show the process of some new works, in addition to revisiting the making of some older ones. Since the beginning stages of the project, my vision for these sculptures has evolved, branching out from my longtime medium of porcelain to include glass as well, and requiring that I learn new techniques.
Pictured below: the beginnings of my first Voynich Manuscript-inspired porcelain sculptures several years ago, alongside the manuscript illustration that inspired them. These particular sculptural components were unfortunate casualties of the learning process—the idea that I had for them did not work as planned, and they ultimately had to be trashed—not an unusual occurrence when figuring out how to make new work! Patience and practice are required at every step, and sometimes the development of consistent results can take weeks, months or even years. Although this time-consuming work does not always coalesce into a finished piece immediately, interesting moments, discoveries and inspirations arise from it and later take shape.
The complexities of working with porcelain and glass are such that photographs of the finished pieces provide limited information about the story of how they were made, and photographs of works in progress are not self-explanatory. Both materials undergo many transformations before arriving at their final form. Therefore, I want to document some of these phases to convey a better sense of the nature of these mediums, and the experience of sculpting. Unlike the origins of the Voynich Manuscript itself, which remain a mystery, I can shed some light on the origins of my sculptures, for those who are interested in learning some insight into my creative process.
To be continued.
