Lace Bowls 3: Goth/Steampunk Wedding Set

Goth/Steampunk Wedding Set

With the wedding season upon us, a number of the galleries and gift shops that carry my lace bowls requested what apparently are referred to as "girlie colors". (Yes, I had to get clarification on the terminology, not surprisingly.) Apparently, jewel tones are acceptable, as are white and pastels.

I wanted to do something a little different. When I first worked with the lace bowls, I had made an entire series of the tiny bowls using each of the glazes in my repertoire. Obviously, some were more successful than others, but sometimes combinations of otherwise less than stellar glazes were pretty interesting. Three glazes in particular - two from the Amaco Potter's Choice series (Saturation Metallic and Saturation Gold) and one I had "inherited" from my first pottery teacher, Gene Pluhar (Metallic Black) - were relatively uninteresting on their own and/or didn't seem to play well with most of the other glazes in my palette. It took my friend Cathy Dossin's interest in the tiny Saturation Metallic lace bowl (later her Christmas gift) to pique my interest in these glazes for these pieces.

Goth/Steampunk Wedding Set

The other part of the puzzle is that I have a friend - she works at the art supply/framing shop in Grosse Pointe Woods I frequent - who is a big steampunk fan. (Yes, I had to ask her to define "steampunk" for me.) She often laments that there is little in the way of "steampunk" goods out there; this is evidently an unappreciated and underrepresented consumer demographic. I thought that I could create a series of bowls using these three "orphan" glazes that could be marketed as a less traditional wedding or anniversary gift for the Steampunk or Goth set. (Hey, all kinds of folks get married!)

I thought a set of three (tiny, small and medium) scalloped bowls would make a compelling ensemble, with the small glazed in Saturation Gold and bracketed by the tiny in Saturation Metallic and the medium in Metallic Black. I wanted to emphasize the contrasts between the three glazes - the dark graphite-like satin of the Saturation Metallic, the brilliant gold satin of the Saturation Gold and the high gloss of the Metallic Black - and how they responded to the highly-figured surface of the lace texture. As a set, they look great tied up with a nice, black (or white!) ribbon.

This set is available at a number of galleries around the Detroit area, including Firebrick Gallery in Rochester, Dancing Eye in Northville and Grosse Pointe Artists Association in Grosse Pointe. Discussions have been rampant as to whether it would better if the three pieces would be better/nicer if they were all finished with the same glaze; most come down on the side of the intriguing contrast of glaze color and character.

I dig their understated yet rebellious elegance.